The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) announced today the sentencing of 2 Hezbollah members, Habib Merhi and Hussein Oneissi, for their involvement in the killing of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
In a statement tweeted on June 16th, the STL said that the Appeals Chamber unanimously sentenced both “Merhi and Oneissi to life imprisonment, the heaviest sentence under the Statute and the Rules, for each of the five crimes of which they were convicted, and ordered that the sentences shall run concurrently.”
The UN-backed court sentenced them in absentia since Hezbollah had refused to hand them over as it did for Salim Ayyash in 2020.
Ayyash was sentenced in absentia in December 2020 to 5 concurrent life sentences for the assassination of Rafik Hariri and 21 others in the same murderous explosion.
The U.S. State Department Rewards for Justice (RFJ) Program issued a statement back in March 2021 announcing a reward of up to $10 million to help locate Ayyash, who is still at large to date.
