• Judge rules 2005 bomb attack ‘an act of terror aimed at Lebanese people’

Najia Houssari Beirut

A UN-backed court has found one Hezbollah member guilty of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, but acquitted three others of involvement in a truck bomb attack that also claimed the lives of 21 other people.

The verdicts from the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon at The Hague were delivered more than 15 years after Hariri was killed and 13 years after the court began its investigations.

In a historic session on Tuesday, the tribunal ruled that the accused Salim Jamil Ayyash, 56, is “the main criminal in the Hariri assassination and a co-conspirator in a plot to commit a terrorist act.”

The court said that Ayyash “had organizational links with Hezbollah” and also that it “suspects Hezbollah and Syria of having benefited from the assassination.”

Three other defendants — Assad Hassan Sabra, 43, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, 46, and Hassan Habib Merhi, 54 — were acquitted of any involvement in the crime due to “insufficient evidence.”

However, the court accused the three men of preparing a forged videotape in an attempt to mislead the investigation.

The tribunal said that “it is difficult to prove that Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine headed the Hariri assassination cell,” adding that “he had the motive and took the necessary actions to carry out the assassination, but the court is not convinced that Badreddine was the mastermind.”

The court had dropped existing charges against Badreddine, who died in a bomb blast in Damascus in May 2016.

However, the tribunal ruled that Hariri’s killing was politically motivated and an “act of terrorism designed to cause fear in the Lebanese population.”

Former prime minister Saad Hariri said afterwards that his family accepted the tribunal’s verdict in the case of his father’s assassination

“The time for political crimes that go unpunished is over. We will not rest until the punishment is implemented,” he said.

“We will not relinquish our rights. The Lebanese want truth and justice.”

Hariri called for “truth and justice in the Beirut port bombing,” which killed 178 people and injured more than 6,000 on Aug. 4.

The court is expected to announce Ayyash’s sentence on Friday. His defense was allowed one month to respond to the verdict or request an appeal.

Immediately after the verdict, the Future Movement leadership in Beirut headed to Hariri’s tomb and memorial amid high security.

Special Tribunal Judge David Ray, assisted by several judges, presented a summary of more than 3,000 papers detailing the court’s ruling. The verdict was broadcast on all channels in Lebanon, except Hezbollah’s outlet.

#WATCH: Moment @STLebanon judge convicts Salim Jamil Ayyash for #RaficHariri assassination, acquits three others #Lebanonhttps://t.co/YS8BGLSjx0 pic.twitter.com/4rAlAzmq1T

— Arab News (@arabnews) August 18, 2020

The ruling said that “in the political context of the assassination, there is no evidence of the responsibility of the Hezbollah leadership in the assassination of Hariri, who had a good relationship with the party’s secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.”

However, the tribunal described the killing as a “conspiracy.”

“The assassination of Hariri was a terrorist act, carried out with the intention of creating a state of panic. Its desired goal was to destabilize Lebanon in general and kill a large number of people,” the court said.

“Evidence indicates that the assassination of Hariri had political links, but it does not prove who ordered his assassination.”

The ruling said: “This assassination was a political act directed by those who viewed Hariri as a threat to their activities.”

“Those in charge of carrying out the assassination were ready to stop the attack at any moment or execute it based on prime minister Hariri’s political choices. This assassination did not happen without context.”

The court found that “Hezbollah and Syria have benefited from the assassination of Hariri, but there is no evidence that the leaders of the party and Syria were responsible for the assassination. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Rafik Hariri had a good relationship in the months preceding the assassination.”

The tribunal based its investigations and judgment on circumstantial evidence related to cell phone activity. Owners of the phones had been monitoring Hariri long before the killing, but phone activity stopped two days after the assassination.

Commenting on Badreddine’s alleged involvement in the killing, the tribunal said the Hezbollah commander “participated with the four defendants in the assassination and undertook the monitoring operation. He also monitored the actual execution of the attack and coordinated the false claim of responsibility.”

The court declared that it “did not recognize the identity of the suicide bomber who blew himself up in the truck that carried two tons of explosives, although very small remains were found at the scene.”

On Feb. 14, 2005, the court accused Lebanese authorities of tampering with the crime scene.

The trial was carried out in absentia, with the defendants still at large despite a 13-year investigation by Lebanese authorities.

The verdict shocked many Lebanese, but they abandoned protest plans following Saad Hariri’s appeal for calm.

Hezbollah supporters expressed their delight with the verdict on social media, despite the militant group refusing to acknowledge the special tribunal.