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| A billboard of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri displayed in Beirut in 2014 |
Appeals judges at the Lebanon Tribunal on Thursday convicted another two men on charges of terrorism and murder for their role in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, reversing their earlier acquittal.
The prosecution had appealed against the acquittal of Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, saying there had been fundamental errors in the judgment.
The judges said the lower trial chamber wrongly assessed the circumstantial evidence in the case, which was based almost entirely on mobile phone records, when they acquitted Merhi and Oneissi.
Like Salim Jamil Ayyash, a former member of the Shi’ite movement Hezbollah, who was convicted in 2020, the two men were tried in absentia and remain at large.
In Lebanon, Hariri’s son Saad al-Hariri, also a former Lebanese prime minister, said the ruling obliged the Lebanese authorities to work to hand over those convicted to the court.
He added he holds Hezbollah responsible for “covering up the crime and protecting the criminals”.
There was no immediate from Hezbollah, which has previously denied any role in the Hariri assassination.
