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UN-Backed Court Convicts One Man in 2005 Assassination of Lebanon's Hariri

Margaret Besheer

   Judges at a U.N.-backed tribunal have found one man guilty in the 2005
   assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and
   acquitted three others charged in the case.
   The presiding judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon declared that
   Salim Jamil Ayyash was guilty on all counts, including conspiracy to
   commit a terrorist act using explosives and intentional homicide of
   Hariri, the 21 bystanders who were killed in the massive explosion, as
   well as the attempted murder of the 226 injured persons.
   But the court said it could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that
   Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra were
   guilty of being part of the conspiracy.
   All four defendants were tried "in absentia" and have not been seen in
   years.
   The men were low-level operatives with the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

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