A UN-backed tribunal in the Netherlands is delivering verdicts Tuesday in the trial in absentia of four members of the Hezbollah militant group who are accused of involvement in the truck bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The verdicts were delayed by nearly two weeks as a mark of respect for victims of another devastating explosion - the detonation of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut’s port.

The August 4 blast killed around 180 people, injured more than 6,000, left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in and plunged a nation already reeling from economic and social malaise even deeper into crisis.

Presiding Judge David Re called for a minute's silence to start the hearing to honor victims of the blast and their families as well as those made homeless by the port blast.

During the trial, which started in 2014 and spanned 415 days of hearings, the tribunal in Leidschendam, near The Hague, heard evidence from 297 witnesses.

Initially, five suspects were tried, all of them Hezbollah members.

Charges against one of the group’s top military commanders, Mustafa Badreddine, were dropped after he was killed in Syria in 2016.

The remaining suspects are Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra, Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa and Hassan Habib Merhi.

They are charged with offenses including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.

If they are convicted, hearings will be held at a later date to determine their sentences.

As the UN-backed court has no death sentence, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

None of the men is every likely to serve time as Hezbollah has vowed not to hand over any suspects.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers can appeal the verdicts.

AGENCY POOL

Leidschendam - 18 August 2020

1. Various of judges arriving

2. Various of lawyers in court

3. Security guard

4. Wide of judges

Former Lebanese premier Saad Hariri said on Tuesday his father was assassinated for his opposition to Syria, speaking after verdicts were issued by a UN-backed tribunal on the killing of his father 15 years ago.

The tribunal convicted one member of the Hezbollah militant group and acquitted three others of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

Hariri said his father was killed because he wanted to end Syrian involvement in Lebanon.

He added that if the Lebanese "want coexistence", everyone must admit to their mistakes.

"Hezbollah must cooperate in this matter," Hariri said.

Leidschendam - 18 August 2020

1. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, son of assassinated Prime Minister Rafic Hariri:

"He was assassinated because he was against the policy of the regime in Syria and he wanted to take this regime out of Lebanon. We all said this, right? But when it comes from a court, that shows that what we've said before in the past, is true."

++BLACK FRAMES++

2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, son of assassinated Prime Minister Rafic Hariri:

"Coexistence is the basis and if we want coexistence, everyone has to admit to their mistakes. The country will not rise if everyone lies to the other. We have to be honest with each other, in order to be able to move to the next stage of building the country. We have to - Hezbollah must cooperate in this matter. And I think that today the court has shown high credibility, showing that this court is not politicised."

A U.N.-backed tribunal in the Netherlands is delivering verdicts Tuesday in the trial in absentia of four members of the Hezbollah militant group who are accused of involvement in the truck bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The verdicts were delayed by nearly two weeks as a mark of respect for victims of another devastating explosion - the detonation of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut’s port.

The Aug. 4 blast killed around 180 people, injured more than 6,000, left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in and plunged a nation already reeling from economic and social malaise even deeper into crisis.

Guilty verdicts could compound tensions in the tiny country. Hariri was Lebanon’s most prominent Sunni politician at the time of his Feb. 14, 2005, assassination, while the Iran-backed Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim group.

The trial centered on the alleged roles of four Hezbollah members in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others and wounded 226 people. Prosecutors based their case largely on data from mobile phones allegedly used by the plotters to plan and execute the bombing.

During the trial, which started in 2014 and spanned 415 days of hearings, the tribunal in Leidschendam, near The Hague, heard evidence from 297 witnesses.

Initially, five suspects were tried, all of them Hezbollah members. Charges against one of the group’s top military commanders, Mustafa Badreddine, were dropped after he was killed in Syria in 2016.

The remaining suspects are Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra, Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa and Hassan Habib Merhi. They are charged with offenses including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.

If they are convicted, hearings will be held at a later date to determine their sentences. As the U.N.-backed court has no death sentence, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

None of the men is ever likely to serve time as Hezbollah has vowed not to hand over any suspects. Prosecutors and defence lawyers can appeal the verdicts.

Hariri’s son Saad, himself a former prime minister, is attending the day-long delivery of the judgment and was one of four victims present in the courtroom for the hearing.

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 14 February 2005

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1. Various of cars burning amid aftermath of bomb blast that killed Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

2. Various aftermath shots of attack on Hariri's car, fire crews putting out flames

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 21 October 2004

++4:3++

3. Hariri walking to meet Lebanese President Emile Lahoud

4. Hariri meeting Lahoud

5. Close up Hariri

ARCHIVE: Date and location unknown

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6. Various of Hariri at rally

7. Various of Hariri greeting people

8. Various of Hariri in meeting with officials

ARCHIVE: Paris, date unknown

++4:3++

9. Various of Hariri meeting French President Jacques Chirac

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 15 February 2005

++4:3++

10. Hariri's son Saad Hariri beside blast crater

11. Lebanese soldiers checking the site

12 . Various of Saad Hariri praying at the blast scene for his father

Former Lebanese premier Saad Hariri says the family accepts the verdicts issued Tuesday by a UN-backed tribunal on the killing of his father 15 years ago.

Hariri told reporters in Leidschendam in the Netherlands: "The court has ruled." Now, he said, the family awaits the implementation of justice.

"Justice will be executed, regardless of how long it takes," he said.

Hariri demanded that truth and justice be also achieved for the Beirut blast on August 4.

The tribunal convicted one member of the Hezbollah militant group and acquitted three others of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Leidschendam - 18 August 2020

1. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, son of assassinated prime minister Rafic Hariri

"The tribunal has issued its verdict and in the name of the family of the martyr the prime minister Rafic Hariri and in the name of the families of the victims, we accept the verdict and demand the execution of justice."

++BLACK FRAMES++

2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, son of assassinated prime minister Rafic Hariri:

"We all know the truth now, and it remains that justice will be executed, regardless of how long it takes."

++BLACK FRAMES++

3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, son of assassinated prime minister Rafic Hariri:

"My demand is that the truth and justice for Rafic Hariri and his comrades leads the way to knowing the truth and achieving justice for all the innocents that perished in the Beirut blast."

++BLACK FRAMES++

4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, son of assassinated prime minister Rafic Hariri:

"And justice for the Beirut explosion is a demand by all Lebanese, don't push them towards confrontation."

Supporters of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut said Tuesday that they were not satisfied with the U.N.-backed tribunal verdict that convicted one member of the Hezbollah militant group and acquitted three others in the 2005 assassination of the former Prime Minister.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Salim Ayyash was guilty as a co-conspirator of five charges linked to his involvement in the suicide truck bombing.

However, after a years-long investigation and trial, three other Hezbollah members were acquitted of all charges that they also were involved in the killing of Hariri, which sent shock waves through the Mideast.

None of the suspects were ever arrested and were not in court to hear the verdicts.

The tribunal's judges also said there was no evidence that the leadership of the Hezbollah militant group and Syria were involved in the attack.

Hariri's son, Saad, himself a former Lebanese premier, said outside the court that the family accepts the verdicts.

Beirut –  18 August 2020  

1. Various of Hariri supporters gathering in Tareeq Al-Jadideh neighbourhood

2. Various of Hariri posters in Tareeq Al-Jadideh neighborhood

3. Traffic in Tareeq Al-Jadideh neighbourhood

4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Rabie Alkajk, Hariri supporter:

"Of course I am not satisfied with the verdict of the tribunal. This is a joke and we are not satisfied. We only believe in God and we don't believe in anyone else. All those who are on the ground are liars."

5. Various of traffic where former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005

6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Youssef Habal, Hariri supporter:

"We are not happy with the judgment of the international tribunal. It is known who killed Rafik Hariri and who took the decision and who carried out (the assassination) in Lebanon. This has been known for 15 years, since the first days after the assassination."

7. Various of Lebanese army vehicles driving

A United Nations tribunal in The Hague will finally deliver verdicts this week in the case of four members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, accused of assassinating former prime minister Rafik Hariri more than 15 years ago.

The verdicts in The Hague are likely to raise tensions in Lebanon still further, a fortnight after the port explosion in Beirut.

Hariri was blown up by a truck bomb in the Lebanese capital in 2005, in an attack that killed a total of 22 people and injured several hundred others.

He was Lebanon's most prominent Sunni politician at the time and was seen as generally pro-Western, while Hezbollah is a Shiite movement backed by Iran.

The death of Hariri changed the face of Lebanese politics and split the country into two broad factions - one of them largely pro-Western, the other influenced heavily by Iran and Syria.

The killing triggered widespread street protests which eventually led to Syrian troops withdrawing from Lebanon, although Syria denied any role in his murder.

The UN tribunal was set up in 2007 under a Security Council resolution, and initially five suspects were tried in absentia in the case, all of them Hezbollah members.

One of the group's top military commanders, Mustafa Badreddine was killed in Syria in 2016.

The four remaining defendants are Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa; Hassan Habib Merhi; and Assad Sabra.

They are charged with offenses including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and face maximum sentences of life imprisonment if convicted.

Sentences will not be announced Tuesday but will be determined at later hearings.

But they are unlikely to serve any prison time: despite international arrest warrants, they still haven't been handed over to the court, and Hezbollah has vowed they never will be.

Even if they are all convicted, Hezbollah as a group will not officially be blamed as the tribunal only accuses individuals, not groups or states.

Marwan Hamadeh served under Hariri as economy minister, and was himself the target of a car bombing in 2004, a year before Hariri died.

Hamadeh survived, although one of his bodyguards was killed.

He said that even if no individual is brought to justice at the end of the tribunal hearing, the case will have succeeded in sending a message about the organisation or the country that ordered Hariri's death.

"It's going to say there is an organization in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East who has been, until now, using political murder as a way of putting countries under their control," he said.

The verdicts are expected to add to the current turmoil in Lebanon, still reeling after the Beirut port blast.

Lebanese officials believe the port explosion was caused by the accidental ignition of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate which was stored in a warehouse there.

While it remains unclear what caused the fire that led to the explosion, Hezbollah - which maintains huge influence over Lebanese politics - is being sucked into the public fury directed at the country's ruling class.

Beirut - 1 August 2020

1. Various of traffic on road where former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005

2. Various of statue of Hariri

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, former economy minister who survived:

"It's going to be a great, great moment, not only for me as a victim but for me as a Lebanese, as an Arab and as an international citizen looking for justice everywhere. This is the first time a special tribunal has been created to focus and to investigate a case where a single assassination then developed into serial murders, has really completely turned over the fate of one country."

4. Glass plaque bearing Hariri's image in Hamadeh's office

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese legislator and survivor of a political assassination:

"It's going to be a message, it's going to say there is an organization in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East who has been, until now, using political murder as a way of putting countries under their control."

6. Close of Hamadeh's hands

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese legislator and survivor of a political assassination:

"Beside the justice of men, there is a Godly justice and the major suspects - either Iranian, Syrian or Lebanese, who were involved in a way with the Hariri assassination - have evaporated (disappeared)."

8. Exterior of Al-Amin Mosque in Beirut

9. Closeup of mosque minarets, with tower of neighbouring St George's Cathedral on right

10. Various of Hariri's grave site

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Nashabe, former consultant for the defense team in the Special Tribunal of Lebanon:

"This is the first international tribunal for terrorism and it was set up without the approval of the Lebanese parliament, whereas it relies on Lebanese law that actually criminalizes terrorism because there is no international consensus on how to define terrorism. So it did not get the approval of the local parliament and it was passed under chapter seven."

12. Books on wall of Nashabe's office

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Nashabe, former consultant for the defense team in the Special Tribunal of Lebanon:

"There are no indications that there are any surprises that would actually be so radical and dramatic. I think the indictment that has been amended several times in the main case, the charges that are in the indictment will be most likely confirmed by the court. This will lead, later on, to perhaps and very likely that we will have an appeal so therefore it is not the end of the course."

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

15. Various of cars burning amid aftermath of bomb blast that killed Hariri

The lawyer for one of the acquitted suspects in the case of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said he and his team were happy with the verdict.

A UN-backed tribunal on Tuesday convicted one member of the Hezbollah militant group and acquitted three others of involvement Hariri's assassination.

Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse said the verdict on Tuesday confirmed their long held belief that his client Hassan Oneissi had not been involved in the act.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Salim Ayyash was guilty as a co-conspirator of five charges linked to his involvement in the suicide truck bombing.

Hariri and 21 others were killed and 226 were wounded in a huge blast outside a seaside hotel in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

Initially, five suspects were tried, all of them Hezbollah members.

Charges against one of the group’s top military commanders, Mustafa Badreddine, were dropped after he was killed in Syria in 2016.

The court said Tuesday it could not prove that Badreddine was the mastermind behind the assassination.

The remaining suspects were Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra, Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa and Hassan Habib Merhi.

They were charged with offenses including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.

Prosecutors based their case largely on data from mobile phones allegedly used by the plotters to plan and execute the bombing.

Without the phone data there would be no case against the four suspects, Presiding Judge David Re said, as he began explaining the complex investigation into the telecom networks prosecutors say the suspects used.

Re said that the telecom evidence in the case was “almost entirely circumstantial.”

However, another judge, Janet Nosworthy, later said that judges had ruled that four different networks of mobile phones “were interconnected and coordinated with each other, and operated as covert networks at the relevant times.”

During the trial, which started in 2014 and spanned 415 days of hearings, the tribunal in Leidschendam, near The Hague, heard evidence from 297 witnesses.

Leidschendam - 18 August 2020

1. Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, lawyer for Hussein Hassan Oneissi approaching podium

2. SOUNDBITE (French) Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, lawyer for Hussein Hassan Oneissi (who changed his name to Hassan Issa):

"This decision does not surprise us, because all the conclusions that have been taken up by the Chamber are those which have been our analysis for years and I believe that the Lebanese media will be able to bear witness to it since we have always said against certain newspapers that the telecom (argument) used by the prosecutor could not allow to conclude the location of such or such person in such place. It is on this presupposition that the prosecutor of the International Tribunal based his prosecution. It was obvious to us from the start that this file did not hold. And indeed, the conclusion is there today. It is a real disaster for the prosecutor but a deserved disaster because these accusations against Mr. Hussen Hassan should never have taken place. An indictment should never have been approved and this trial should not have taken place. "

3. Mid of court exterior

4. SOUNDBITE (French) Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, lawyer for Hussein Hassan Oneissi (who changed his name to Hassan Issa):

"Today, we are obviously very happy for Mr. Oneissi, who is cleared of any suspicion of the prosecutor's accusation, but at the same time we are, particularly me, I am very sad that a billion dollars was spent on such a void file and on evidence that was obviously mediocre from the start."

5. Courcelle-Labrousse leaving