Cairo: Lebanon’s premier-designate Saad Al Hariri has urged authorities in the country to implement a life sentence passed by a UN-backed court against a convict in the assassination of his father.
In February 2005, former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al Hariri was killed along with 21 others in a bombing that targeted his motorcade in Beirut.
On Friday, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ssentenced in absentia a convicted member of the Iran-allied Lebanese Hezbollah movement to five terms of life imprisonment for involvement in Al Hariri’s assassination.
Five charges
In August, the court based in the Netherlands convicted Salim Ayyash on five charges in connection with Al Hariri’s killing and found him guilty of homicide and perpetrating a terrorist act.
“International justice has issued its verdict in the case of the martyred premier Rafik Al Hariri and his companions. The penalty given to Salim Ayyash should be carried out. Lebanese judicial and security authorities must do their duty in this regard,” Al Hariri Jr wrote on his Twitter account. Ayyash is still at large.
Hezbollah has denied involvement in Hariri’s bombing and has not recognised the tribunal’s decisions.
In August, the court also acquitted three other defendants in the same case due to a lack of evidence.
