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The United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued its verdict against Salim Ayyash, suspected of belonging to “Hezbollah”, and was convicted of participating in the assassination of martyred former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
The court sentenced Ayyash, 57, to life in prison five times on charges related to the Hariri murder and three other terrorist attacks against Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.
Ayyash was tried in absentia and convicted last August for his role in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others.
Salim Ayyash remains at large, as Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah refused to hand him over, along with three other defendants, who were ultimately acquitted.
During a hearing in November, prosecutors said life imprisonment was the “only fair and appropriate sentence” for Salim Ayyash, considering the matter related to “the most dangerous terrorist attack on Lebanese soil.” They also demanded the confiscation of Ayyash’s property.
On August 18, at the conclusion of a six-year trial, the judges found that there was sufficient evidence to determine that Ayyash was at the center of a network of mobile phone users who had spied on Hariri in the months leading up to his murder.
They said in their verdict that Ayyash is “guilty in a manner not tainted by any reasonable suspicion” of the five charges brought against him, namely, “plotting a conspiracy aimed at committing a terrorist act and committing a terrorist act with the use of an explosive device and deliberately killing Hariri with the use of explosive materials and deliberately killing 21 other people with the use of explosive materials. ” 226 people deliberately using explosive materials “.
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