[ad_1]
After he was found guilty of the murder of the former prime minister and four other charges
Yesterday, the Special Court for Lebanon sentenced Hezbollah leader Salim Ayyash (57 years old), convicted of conspiring to assassinate former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, to five life sentences.
In August, the court convicted Ayyash as the sole culprit in Hariri’s murder, after he acquitted former defendants Asaad Sabra, Hussein Oneissi and Hassan Habib Merhi.
At the time, the court indicted Ayyash on five counts, namely, the deliberate murder of Hariri with the use of explosive materials and the deliberate murder of 21 other people with explosive materials, in addition to deliberately trying to kill 226 people with explosive materials. , prepare a plot to commit a terrorist act and commit a terrorist act with an explosive device.
Judge David Ray of the court considered that the crimes committed by Ayyash were “serious to the extent that they require the maximum penalty” and that “the violations are very serious to the extent that the circumstances that can be considered mitigating and allow reduce penalty are rare. ” The need to impose the maximum penalty for each of the five crimes, which is life imprisonment, and they are executed simultaneously ”.
During a hearing last November, prosecutors said life in prison is the “only fair and appropriate sentence” for Salim Ayyash, considering that the matter relates to “the most dangerous terrorist attack on Lebanese soil.” They also demanded the confiscation of Ayyash’s property.
Ayyash faces other charges. Last year, the International Court charged him with “terrorism and murder” for his involvement in three other attacks on politicians between 2004 and 2005.
In the first comment on the ruling, the deputy and ex-minister resigned, Marwan Hamadeh, who accused Ayyash of trying to kill him, considered that life imprisonment “for an absent criminal may seem trivial, compared to the level and horror of the crime” . Rather, the matter “constitutes and above all a lesson for the Lebanese judiciary, which failed during the time of Shalal Al-Dam, with the exception of some prosecutors and their deputies who risked their lives and the safety of their families to coordinate with the Court of The Hague.
It is noteworthy that Al-Ayyash was convicted in absentia, as he had not registered any appearance since the beginning of the court’s work, in addition to Hezbollah’s refusal to hand over any of its members to the court, whose decisions were rejected by ” politicized. “
Salim Ayyash faces another trial in the same court, related to three other bloody attacks on Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.
Hamadeh considered that the ruling on Ayyash also constitutes “an eternal stain of an international character against the accused and the hidden murderers, the one that is dotted all the Lebanese and all the Arabs and all the Muslims and the whole world.” “He is not” alone in weaving the conspiracy, completing the coordination between Tehran and Damascus, terror dens, intelligence basements, TNT and C4 warehouses, buying cars and trucks, managing phone lines, preparing assassination teams and recruiting the wrong people. .
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon found Hariri’s assassination a “political” assassination carried out by “whom Hariri posed as a threat,” and noted that “there is no evidence that the (Hezbollah) leadership had a role in the assassination “and that” there is no direct evidence of Syrian involvement in the assassination.
Hamadeh believed that “the punishment that was inflicted on Ayyash is not in itself an attempt of revenge by anyone against anyone, nor an investigation of justice that was beaten by the people of the murder and their allies from the first hours and during the years of commit the crimes ”. The crime is linked to the group of great criminals, although the vast majority of them are absent, thanks to divine justice.
[ad_2]
