The special UN-backed court on Tuesday has convicted one of the four accused over killing former Lebanon’s prime minister Rafic Hariri in Beirut in 2005.
The accused Salim Ayyash and the others, all from the militant group Hezbollah, had been on trial in absentia since 2014.
Ayyash was found guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, assassinating Hariri and causing the deaths of 21 others and injuring 226 more in the suicide car bombing on February 14, 2005.- reports BBC.
Besides Ayyash, the three other accused are – Hussein Hassan Oneissi, Assad Hassan Sabra and Hassan Habib Merhi – were acquitted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), based on the outskirts of The Hague in The Netherlands.
The verdict comes at a time of deep political crisis in Lebanon.
The assassinating of Rafic Hariri, one of Lebanon’s most prominent politicians and the former prime minister, caused outrage across the country.
