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Today Friday, the Special Court for Lebanon imposed five life sentences on Salim Ayyash for his role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
The trial chamber of the court announced the sentence in the Ayyash et al. Case, and ruled unanimously against the defendant, Salim Jamil Ayyash, to five life sentences to be executed at the same time. More: https://t.co/hr5rdhtKgN
– Special Tribunal for Lebanon (@STLe Lebanon) December 11, 2020
“The attack was intended to spread terror in Lebanon, which is what really happened … It resolved the conviction of the court that the maximum penalty should be applied, which is life imprisonment, which is life imprisonment, for everyone of the five crimes, and that they are executed at the same time, “said Australian Judge David Rhee as he read the court’s decision.
Ayyash, 57, was tried in absentia and convicted last August for his role in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others.
Salim Ayyash, suspected of being affiliated with Hezbollah, 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 that the matter was related to “the most serious terrorist attack on Lebanese soil.” They also demanded the confiscation of Ayyash’s property.
The STL Trial Chamber issued a judgment in the Ayyash et al. case. It unanimously sentenced the convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash to five simultaneous life sentences. Subsequently, Judge Re adjourned the hearing. pic.twitter.com/1VbghtdhVx
– Special Tribunal for Lebanon (@STLe Lebanon) December 11, 2020
Rafik Hariri was Lebanon’s prime minister before his resignation in October 2004. He was killed in February 2005 when a suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives as his caravan passed. The attack left 22 dead and 226 wounded.
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 heart of a network of mobile phone users who had spied on Hariri in the months leading up to his murder.
In their verdict, they said Ayyash was “indisputably guilty” of the five charges brought against him, namely, “plotting a conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and commit a terrorist act with an explosive device and deliberately killing Hariri with the use of of explosive materials and deliberately killing another 21 people using explosive materials and attempting to kill 226 “. People who deliberately use explosive materials. “
On the other hand, the court acquitted the three remaining defendants, Asaad Sabra, Hussein Oneisi and Hassan Habib Merhi, who belonged to Hezbollah, and they were tried in absentia because the Lebanese authorities were unable to arrest them and hand them over to the court and because the party it refused to hand over any of its members to a court it considered “politicized.”
In its statement at the time, the court said: “The trial chamber will now impose a penalty in relation to each charge for which Ayyash was convicted, or will impose a single penalty covering all of his criminal conduct. The penalty imposed on one A convicted person can be sentenced to life imprisonment. “
The court issued a new arrest warrant and issued a Red Notice from the International Police (Interpol) regarding Ayyash.
The First Class Chamber issued a new arrest warrant, an international arrest warrant, and a transfer and arrest warrant for Mr. Ayyash. He asked those protecting Salim Jamil Ayyash from justice to hand him over to the court.
– Special Tribunal for Lebanon (@STLe Lebanon) December 11, 2020
According to the judges, there is no evidence of a link between the attack and the Hezbollah leadership. However, in a separate opinion attached to the ruling, Ray, who is presiding over the court, referred to “harsh words” uttered by Hezbollah leaders in support of Ayyash after the allegation against him was revealed in 2011, and that Ayyash was not arrested in the following years.
“From my point of view, the above leads us to a strong conclusion about who has been protecting him from justice all these years,” Rey said.
The victims of the explosion, which also injured 226 people, some of them seriously, demanded a court order for the payment of compensation.
The judges said the court’s statute does not allow them to order compensation payments to either the defendant or the Lebanese state, but the court recommended establishing a national program to compensate the victims.
In 2007, the UN Security Council approved the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Netherlands and presented it as the world’s first international court to investigate terrorist crimes.
Salim Ayyash will be at the center of another trial in the same court, related to three other bloody attacks on Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.
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