BICOM

The 2005 bombing that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was a terrorist act, according to judges at the UN-backed tribunal in the Hague set up to investigate the attack.

The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon is inviestigating the 14 February 2005 attack on Hariri, who was killed along with 21 others in an explosion in Beirut. The equivalent to 2,200 pounds of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel.

Yesterday, Judge David Re said the attack was an act of terrorism, intended to sow fear among the Lebanese people, and could only have been carried out by a sophisticated group with intricate planning ability, over a long period of time.

The Special Tribunal also found that the evidence presented by prosecutors “could” lead to the convictions of four suspects, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra. The men are allegedly affiliated with Hezbollah and currently on trial in absentia. The Judges emphasised that they have not concluded that any of the suspects are actually guilty.

The Government of Lebanon and the UN agreed to establish the Special Tribunal in 2007. In June 2011, the Tribunal submitted to Lebanon’s Prosecutor General indictments of four Hezbollah members and a foreign citizen.

This week, a senior Fatah official and former Palestinian Authority (PA) ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki attended a Hezbollah event and called for a rapprochement between Arab states and Tehran. In a speech reported by the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen television channel’s website, Zaki also said that any Israeli attack against Hezbollah would be an “attack on Lebanon and Palestine and all the Islamic and Arab holy sites”.