A UN-approved tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has convicted a Hezbollah member and acquitted three others for lack of evidence.
According to the International News Agency, a special tribunal of the International Court of Justice has found Saleem Ayash, a member of Hezbollah, responsible for the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a car bombing in 2005 in the absence of the accused.
The international tribunal acquitted three other Hezbollah suspects in the killings, Asad Sabra, Hassan Onisi and Hassan Habib Mehri, for lack of evidence. Saleem Ayash's mobile phone was used in the murder.
Judge David Ray of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said in a statement that the court believed that Syria and Hezbollah could use political force to oust former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and some of his political allies. No evidence found.
Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a suicide car bombing in Lebanon on February 14, 2015. Syria and Hezbollah strongly denied involvement in the killings, but a Hezbollah member was found guilty 15 years later.
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri expressed satisfaction with the tribunal's decision, saying he accepted the tribunal's decision and wanted to see the perpetrators punished.
