Lebanon tribunal judge: 'No evidence' of Hezbollah involvement in Hariri's murder

An UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, on August 18, reportedly said that there is ‘no evidence’ that Hezbollah’s leadership or the Syrian government were involved in the 2005 bombing that killed former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. According to international media reports, the special tribunal in the Netherlands is announcing the verdict in the trial of four members of the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, who are charged with conspiracy to kill Hariri and 21 others. 

Judge David Re, while reading a summary of the court’s 2,600-page decision, reportedly said that the trial chamber is of the view that Syria and Hezbollah may have had motives to eliminate Hariri and his political allies. However, the judge added that there is ‘no evidence’ that the militant group Hezbollah had any involvement in the former Lebanese PM’s murder. Further, Re also added that there is ‘no direct evidence of Syrian involvement’ as well. 

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Rafik Hariri was Lebanon’s most prominent Sunni politician at the time of his February 14, 2005 assassination. As Hezbollah is a Shitte Muslim group, the trial centred on the alleged roles of the four members of the militant group who were allegedly involved in the suicide truck bombing that killed the former Lebanese PM and 21 others. 

Bombing created ‘man-made hell’ 

According to international media reports, the prosecutors based their case largely on data from mobile phones allegedly used by the plotters to plan and execute the bombing. Initially, five suspects were tried from the Hezbollah group. However, charges against one the group’s top military commanders, Mustafa Badreddine, were dropped after he was killed in Syria in 2016. The remaining suspects reportedly are Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra, Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa and Hassan Habib Merhi.

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The four Hezbollah members were charged with offences including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. Back in 2014, when the trial opened, hearing spanned for 415 days and the tribunal reportedly heard evidence from 297 witnesses. During the same time, a scale model of the blast scene reportedly stood on a table in the centre of the courtroom and a prosecutor had told judges that explosives packed into a Mitsubishi truck detonated to create ‘a man-made hell’. 

Hariri’s assassination was seen by many Lebanon workers as the work of Syria, a charge denied by Damascus. Several Lebanese also see the tribunal as in an impartial way of uncovering the truth of the former PM’s slaying. 

(Image: AP) 

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