Both men are convicted in their absence by the UN-backed tribunal (STL) in The Hague, the Netherlands, which has been investigating the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri for several years.
A total of 22 people died and more than 200 were injured by a suicide bomber in Beirut in February 2005. The two were acquitted in 2020 of involvement in the act, when another Hezbollah member was convicted, but the acquittal was appealed.
The two are now sentenced to life in prison for each of the five counts they are now convicted of.
The Sunni Muslim billionaire al-Hariri had close ties to the United States and other Western countries, as well as allied Gulf states, and was seen as a threat to Iran’s and Syria’s influence in Lebanon. Hezbollah, for its part, has seen the STL court as an infringement of Lebanon’s sovereignty.