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A man who murdered two Irish soldiers in southern Lebanon 40 years ago was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of the killings.
Mahmoud Bazzi, 76, was convicted of murdering private soldiers Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne, who were kidnapped and killed while serving peacekeeping duties at the United Nations in April 1980.
Bazzi was also found guilty of attempting to assassinate another Irish soldier, Private John O’Mahony.
Due to his advanced age, Bazzi’s sentence was reduced to 15 years. He has been detained since January 2015.
Bazzi and other members of the Israel-backed DFF militia abducted soldier soldiers Barrett and Smallhorne on April 18, 1980 in southern Lebanon.
During the incident, another soldier, Private O’Mahony, was shot and wounded.
Private Barrett and Private Smallhorne were taken away by their captors in a car. Their bodies were found hours later, both had been killed point-blank.
Bazzi was the main suspect from day one. But he went to the ground and could not be located.
It was 20 years after the murders, in 2000, that a team from RTÉ Prime Time tracked Bazzi to where he lived in the United States and worked on an ice cream truck.
Although Bazzi’s whereabouts were known, it took another 15 years before he was arrested and deported back to Lebanon for immigration offenses.
He was immediately arrested and put on trial for the murder of the two Irish soldiers.
That trial has been ongoing for more than five years.
In November 2015, O’Mahony traveled to Lebanon and testified before the Military Court of seven judges who have been hearing the case.
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On behalf of Prime Time, I traveled to Beirut when Mr. O’Mahony testified and observed the court proceedings that were conducted in Arabic.
O’Mahony stood in the center of the court and pointed out to Mahmoud Bazzi who was behind security bars in a corner of the court, saying that it was the man who had shot him.
The former Irish soldier testified for an hour, and then I interviewed him at a hotel in Beirut. John told me: “When I entered the court it gave me great satisfaction to be able to stand up and point to the man who shot me in that year of 1980.
“It was very easy for me because all the evidence was embedded in my head. And it is embedded there for 35 years and thank God he never left me or I never forgot Bazzi,” he told me.
In the five years since Mr. O’Mahony gave his testimony, Bazzi’s trial was postponed several times, and evidence was occasionally heard.
In May 2018, Bazzi was convicted of one count of collaboration with Israel.
But no update has yet emerged as of this week on the longstanding murder and attempted murder charges related to the Irish peacekeepers.
However, it has now emerged that the Military Tribunal reached a final conclusion in recent days, finding Bazzi guilty of murdering Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne, and attempting to murder John O’Mahony.
The news was communicated by the Irish Department of Defense to Private Smallhorne’s wife and three children in Dublin and Private Barrett’s wife and three children in Cork.
Retired soldier John O’Mahony received the news at his home in Co Kerry.
In a statement, Foreign and Defense Minister Simon Coveney said: “I am grateful that the Lebanese authorities have concluded this matter and that a conviction has been obtained in the case.”
“The Irish government has done everything possible to help the Lebanese authorities with this case in recent years and I am delighted that, after four decades since the assassination of the two peacekeepers, justice has been served.”
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