One of four men accused of killing former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Haririin Beirut in 2005 has been convicted by a special UN-backed court, the BBC reports.
Salim Ayyash and the others, members of the Shia group Hezbollah, had been on trial in absentia since 2014.
Ayyash was found guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, assassinating Hariri and causing the deaths of 21 others and injuring 226 more in the suicide car bombing on 14 February.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge said there was no evidence that Hezbollah’s leadership nor Syria, were implicated in the attack.
In the morning of 14 February 2005, Rafik Hariri – then an MP who aligned himself with the opposition in parliament – was travelling in a motorcade past Beirut’s St George Hotel when a bomb hidden a van exploded.
The blast created a huge crater in the street, and left nearby vehicles smouldering and shopfronts blown out and blackened.
More than 220 people were also injured when a van filled with explosives blew up as Mr Hariri’s convoy passed along Beirut’s seafront corniche.
