UN-backed court convicts Hezbollah operative for assassination of Lebanese ex-PM

LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands — A UN-backed tribunal convicts one member of the Hezbollah terror group and acquits three others of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon says Salim Ayyash was guilty as a co-conspirator of five charges linked to his involvement in the suicide truck bombing. Hariri and 21 others were killed and 226 were wounded in a huge blast outside a seaside hotel in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

“The trial chamber finds Mr. Ayyash guilty beyond reasonable doubt as a co-perpetrator of the assassination of Rafic Hariri,” says David Re, the presiding judge of the tribunal.

However after a years-long investigation and trial, three other Hezbollah members are acquitted of all charges that they also were involved in the murder of Hariri that sent shock waves through the Middle East.

— Agencies