The United Nations court has ruled on Friday that a killer of the Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri should be life-long imprisoned, Digital Journal reports.
The fugitive Hezbollah member Salim Ayyash has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2005 assassination of the ex-PM of Lebanon and 21 other people.
The killer, 57, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, committing a terrorist act using an explosive device, the “intentional homicide” of PM Hariri and of 21 other people, and attempted homicide of those injured in the attack.
Ayyash remains on the run but participates in an act of terrorism that caused mass murder, chief Judge David Re told the UN-backed court. “In the circumstances, the trial chamber is satisfied that it should impose the maximum sentence for each of the five crimes of life imprisonment to be served concurrently,” Re added.
Rafik Hariri served as Lebanon’s prime minister until he resigned in October 2004. The politician was killed in February 2005 when a suicide bomber detonated a van filled with explosives as his armoured convoy drove past.
In their long-awaited ruling in August, judges said there was sufficient evidence to show that Ayyash was at the centre of a network of mobile phone users who scoped out Hariri’s movements for months before his assassination.
Ayyash faces a separate case at the tribunal over three other deadly attacks on Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.
