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A military court in Lebanon convicted a man of murdering two Irish peacekeepers 40 years ago.
In a verdict announced Monday night, the court said it had found former militiaman Mahmoud Bazzi (76) guilty of the murders of Pte Thomas Barrett and Pte Derek Smallhorne on April 18, 1980, who were part of the Unifil mission. in the country.
The court sentenced Bazzi to life in prison, but immediately reduced this sentence to 15 years based on his age.
Bazzi murdered the two Irish men in revenge for his brother who had died in a shootout with Irish and Fijian forces which became known as the Battle of At Tiri. Irishman Pte Stephen Griffin and a Fijian were also killed in the confrontation.
The verdict was handed down by a military court sitting in Beirut on Monday.
Following a UN investigation, Bazzi was found in 2015 living in Michigan, United States, and selling ice cream. He was later deported to Lebanon for immigration offenses, where he was tried for the murder of the two men.
The 71-year-old kidnapped, tortured and killed soldiers Pte Smallhorne (31) from Dublin and Pte Barrett (30) from Cork and shot Irish peacemaker John O’Mahony in 1980.
Bazzi committed the killings while he was a member of the Israel-sponsored South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia, formed to operate against Palestinian and Lebanese Shiite forces during the 1978-2000 Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory north of the border with Israel.
The Irish peacekeepers were traveling in convoy on April 18, 1980, when they were detained by the SLA.
Pte O’Mahony, from Scartaglin, Co Kerry, testified during the trial that the two Irish soldiers were assaulted before being driven out by the militiamen.
Bazzi later appeared on television and said that he murdered the men to get revenge for his brother’s death. However, he later changed his story and said that his commander had ordered him to kill the men.
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