Lebanon Tribunal convicts another two men for 2005 Hariri bombing

Appeals judges at the Lebanon Tribunal on Thursday convicted another two men of several counts of terrorism and murder for playing a role in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Al-Hariri, reversing an earlier acquittal.

"The appeals chamber had unanimously decided to reverse the acquittals (...) we unanimously find misters (Hassan Habib) Merhi and (Hussein Hassan) Oneissi guilty," Presiding judge Ivana Hrdlickova said in a summary of the judgement read out in court.

The prosecution had appealed against the acquittal of the two men, saying there had been fundamental errors in the judgment.

In 2020 a lower trial chamber already convicted a former member of the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, Salim Jamil Ayyash, for the bombing that killed veteran Sunni Muslim politician Hariri and 21 others. All three men have been tried in absentia and remain at large.

Hariri was Lebanon's Sunni premier until his resignation in 2004 over Syria's role as powerbroker in the country.

(Reuters)