On appeal, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) convicted two Hezbollah sympathizers for the attack perpetrated against former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in February 2005, this Thursday, March 10, in The Hague.
At the end of a river trial, Hussein Oneissi and Hassan Merhi were acquitted at first instance in August 2020, recalls our correspondent in The Hague, Stephanie Maupas.
But this Thursday, the two men were finally found guilty on appeal of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism and complicity in intentional homicide, for their participation in the establishment of a false claim, launched just after the attack, which left 21 dead and 226 injured in February 2005.
Rafic Hariri, Lebanese Prime Minister until his resignation in October 2004, was killed when a suicide bomber blew up a van filled with explosives as his armored convoy passed through Beirut.
” The chamber decided unanimously to overturn the acquittals of Mr. Merhi and Mr. Oneissi. We unanimously find Mr. Merhi and Mr. Oneissi guilty said Ivana Hrdlickova, presiding judge of the STL, who had already sentenced another alleged Hezbollah member, Salim Ayyash, to life in 2020 in absentia, in particular for intentional homicide.
” Miscarriage of justice “
By acquitting the two men during the trial at first instance, the judges had invalidated the exhibits proving, according to the prosecution, their role in a false claim of the attack on Al Jazeera.
This evidence, based on a large number of exchanges with different mobile phones used by the defendants in the hours following the assassination of Rafic Hariri, finally convinced the appeal chamber.
The appeals chamber said in a statement that it had ” found that the trial chamber committed errors of law invalidating the judgment and errors of fact resulting in a miscarriage of justice. »
New hearings will be organized in the coming months to discuss the sentence. In August 2020, one of the leaders of the operation, Salim Ayyash, also tried in absentia, had already been sentenced to life imprisonment.
But even if the judges immediately issued arrest warrants against the two Lebanese, they will probably never experience prison. Since the creation of this Tribunal, Hezbollah had promised to ” cut off the hand of those who would hand over the accused.
The sponsors of this attack have never been clearly identified by this Tribunal, even if the judgment had touched on the role of Syria, while specifying that there was no direct evidence. It is now too late. Due to lack of funding, the TSL should close its doors in the coming months, without having conducted the trials relating to the other attacks of the time, targeting politicians and journalists.
►Also read: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon threatened to disappear due to lack of funding