Beirut - Marwa Shaheen - Beth:

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued an arrest warrant in absentia against two members of Hezbollah in the case of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, and a statement of the court announced the decision of the Appeals Chamber of the Tribunal to convict Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, after unanimously annulled a previous ruling that had acquitted them.

Saad Hariri calls on the Lebanese state to extradite the accused

Commenting on the issuance of this decision, Saad Hariri said in a statement that the decision of the Appeals Chamber requires the Lebanese state, with all its authorities and military and security forces, to work to arrest the convicts and hand them over to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to implement the prescribed penalties.

In the statement, Hariri called for the arrest of Hezbollah member Salim Ayyash, blaming Hezbollah for the responsibility of covering up the crime, protecting the criminals who belong to it and evading the rule of international justice.

The court convicted Ayyash in August 2020 and sentenced him at the end of the same year in absentia to life imprisonment, and the judges at the time considered Ayyash “guilty beyond any reasonable doubt” of the five charges brought against him: planning a conspiracy aimed at committing a terrorist act, and committing a terrorist act by using An explosive device, the intentional killing of Hariri using explosive materials, the deliberate killing of 21 other people using explosive materials, and an attempt to deliberately kill 226 people using explosive materials.

However, the court, which was established months after Hariri's assassination, did not find sufficient evidence to convict 3 other defendants from the Tehran-backed Hezbollah, namely Assad Sabr, Anissi and Marei. The prosecution later appealed the verdicts of acquittal against the latter.

Hezbollah has repeatedly refused to extradite the defendants or even recognize the court that issued an international arrest warrant for Ayyash after his conviction, and in January 2021 Ayyash's defense team submitted a request to appeal the ruling against him, but the court rejected the request, and announced that he could not appeal the ruling against him. Unless he turns himself in.

Assassination incident

And on February 14, 2005: an explosion occurred at about one o'clock in the Al-Mraiseh area, west of Beirut, which is teeming with economic institutions. Prime Minister Hariri was assassinated by the explosion in which 1,800 kilograms of TNN were used. Hariri was accompanied by 21 other people, including the Minister of Economy. Basil Fleihan, who was with him in his car, the force of the explosion led to the demolition of the St. George Hotel and some of the surrounding buildings.

Months after his assassination, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was established, which is a criminal court approved by the Security Council to consider the results of the investigation carried out by the International Commission of Inquiry to identify the perpetrators.

On December 11, 2020: the same court issued its decision with 5 life sentences against Ayyash for plotting to kill Hariri, and Australian judge David Ray said that Ayyash, whom the prosecution list describes as a military leader in the Lebanese Hezbollah, committed a terrorist act that caused Mass killing, indicating that he had a vital role in the success of the bombing operation that targeted the convoy of the late Prime Minister in downtown Beirut on February 14, 2005.

The US Treasury has allocated a $10 million reward for information on the whereabouts of Salim Ayyash, the Lebanese Hezbollah member convicted in the murder of Rafik Hariri, after the party's refusal, through its Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, to hand Salim Ayyash to the relevant security authorities.