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The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Friday sentenced Hezbollah operative Salim Ayache to five parallel life sentences in absentia for the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.
The Hezbollah terrorist had a “primary,” “principal role” as part of the killing team that was “necessary to the killing,” the court stated.
Hariri’s 2005 assassination through an extensive car bomb shook Lebanon, leading to heavy demonstrations and international pressure that occurred in the final withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country, 30 years after they started during Lebanon’s civil war.
Hariri had been operating to defeat Syria’s importance in Lebanese politics at the time of his assassination in Valentine’s Day blast that also killed 21 others.
Hezbollah was Syria’s most intimate partner in Lebanon.
Ayache was sentenced on charges of collusion of committing a terrorist act, perpetuating a terrorist action by means of explosive material, and the deliberate killing of Hariri with purpose by using dangerous materials.
In addition, he was also charged with the deliberate homicide of 21 persons and the ventured intended homicide of 226 people.
Ayache has never been arrested and is thought to be under the protection of Hezbollah, whose leader, Hasan Nasrallah, has called him and three other Hezbollah members who reached trial for the crime — but were not seen guilty — as “important men of the resistance”.
The STL circulated a warrant for Ayache’s arrest in 2011.