Hezbollah member who killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri handed life sentence
- Hezbollah has denied involvement in the attack, and the Netherlands judges said no evidence implicated the militant group’s leadership
- Salim Jamil Ayyash, the man sentenced on Friday, was found guilty in August
Fifteen years after the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, a Lebanese Hezbollah member convicted of the crime was sentenced to life in prison in absentia on Friday.
Hariri was killed in a terrorist attack that hit his motorcade in Beirut on February 14, 2005.
Alongside the politician, 21 others were killed and 226 were injured by the massive suicide truck bombing, caused by some 3,000 kilograms of explosives and generating a shock wave that could be felt for miles.
Hezbollah has denied involvement in the attack, and the judges in the Netherlands said no evidence implicated the militant group's leadership.
The tribunal issued an indictment and arrest warrants for four men in 2011. None of the accused were in custody and the trial against them, which started in 2014, was held in absentia.
Hezbollah member Salim Jamil Ayyash, the man sentenced on Friday, was found guilty in August, while the three other defendants were acquitted owing to a lack of evidence.