Wed 19 August 2020:
A United Nations-backed tribunal found a member of the Lebanese group Hezbollah guilty of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a massive bomb blast in 2005.
While Salim Ayyash was convicted, the three other Hezbollah suspects were cleared of the charges on Tuesday.
“We accept the verdict of the tribunal and want justice to be implemented,” said former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, adding that he wants “just punishment” for the criminals.
Hariri said those who assassinated his father aimed to “change the face of Lebanon and its system and its civilised identity” and said there will be “no compromise” on this matter.
“The [Special Tribunal for Lebanon] proved that one of Hezbollah’s commanders carried out the operation,” Hariri told UAE based Al Arabiya in an interview.
Hariri said that from the time his father was killed, “we wanted justice, and we call on this, Ayyash, to be turned in to the international tribunal.”
“Hezbollah needs to know that it [is responsible] for this crime. And the accused should be turned in,” Hariri said.
Some Lebanese, including victims waiting 15 years for justice, voiced disbelief at the verdict that acquitted three other Hezbollah members and found no evidence of the involvement of the leadership of Hezbollah or the Syrian government.
“I am shocked. Instead of the network (of culprits) expanding, it is now one superman who has done all of that?” said Sanaa al-Sheikh, who was wounded in the February 14, 2005 bomb blast on Beirut’s waterfront that killed Hariri. She added that she had never expected an outcome like this.
“They should pay us back the money they got,” said Mahmoud, speaking from a mainly Sunni Muslim district of Beirut loyal to Hariri, referring to the roughly $1 billion cost of the trial.
There was only silence from Hezbollah, which denies any involvement in the bomb attack. Fireworks were briefly heard in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s Shia Muslim southern suburbs.
In central Beirut, Hariri family members and loyalists stood at his grave waiting for his son, Saad, also a former premier, to speak from outside the tribunal in The Hague.
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