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Hariri’s eldest son insists Syria & Hezbollah involved in father’s assassination

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By Kim Sengupta

Former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri , father of PM Saad Hariri was assassinated in downtown Beirut on February 14, 2005. 5 Hezbollah operatives have been accused of killing Hariri and have being tried in absentia by the UN backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon

The eldest son of assassinated Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri has insisted there are strong indications that Hezbollah and Syria were involved in the killing, despite a court clearing the militia and the Damascus government of culpability.

A UN-mandated tribunal found a member of Hezbollah, Salim Jamil Ayyash, guilty of five charges linked to the truck bombing which killed Hariri and 21 other people in Beirut in 2005. The judges cleared three other defendants who were alleged accomplices.

But the tribunal concluded that there was no evidence that the leadership of Hezbollah or the Syrian government were responsible for the murder.

The late prime minister’s supporters had maintained that Ayyash was acting under the orders of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, in collusion with the group’s backer Syria.

Bahaa Hariri said he accepted the court verdict. However, he also told The Independent that the crime “did not take place in a political or historical vacuum”. “The UN-mandated special tribunal confirmed that the killing of my father was a political assassination undertaken by those whose activities my father was threatening, after he had decided that Syria must leave our country,” he said.

“The judgment provided clear and detailed indirect evidence of the part played by Syria, following Rafiq Hariri’s position shortly before his death that Syria needed to withdraw completely from Lebanon and dismantle its security apparatus in the country and the disarmament of the militias.”

All the defendants were tried in absentia at the tribunal which was held, for security reasons, outside Lebanon but before judges from Lebanon, Australia and Jamaica. Another suspect, Mustafa Badreddinne, was killed in Syria in 2016.

Mr Hariri, whose brother Saad was also a prime minister of Lebanon before being forced to resign last year amid widespread anti-corruption protests, continued: “The court was clear about the political background of those involved and other players with the motive, local operational capability and experience of this kind of action. Salim Ayyash, a Hezbollah member and relative of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, was found guilty on all counts. 

“I respect the court’s judgment and applaud US secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s denunciation of Hezbollah’s role in the action. Pompeo’s words – that Hezbollah operatives do not freelance – were a clear indication of the group’s involvement… The malign influence of Hezbollah hangs over our country like a dark cloud. We must blow that dark cloud away if we are to shine as a country.”

(THE INDEPENDENT)

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7 responses to “Hariri’s eldest son insists Syria & Hezbollah involved in father’s assassination”

  1. Arzna Avatar
    Arzna

    Bahaa and Pompeo are absolutely right , Hezbollah operatives do not freelance. No operative would have ever dared to this on their own. I bet you the order to murder Hariri came from Tehran to both Assad and Nasrallah . Without Assad’s and Khamanei’s approval Nasrallah would not have ordered the assassination. The issue was a lot bigger than Nasrallah

  2. vs Avatar
    vs

    Detachment 121: Hezbollah’s secret killers https://detaly.co.il/otryad-121-sekretnye-killery-hizbally/

    1. vs Avatar
      vs

      On August 18, a special international tribunal under the auspices of the United Nations to investigate the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri found Hezbollah activist Salim Ayash guilty of murder

      1. vs Avatar
        vs

        It was he who owned a cell phone that sent a signal to detonate an explosive that was stuffed into a minibus left on the route of Hariri’s motorcade. Three other Hezbollah activists were cleared of charges after 11 years of investigation because there was “insufficient” evidence in their case.

        According to the tribunal, the investigation did not prove the involvement of the Hezbollah leadership in the murder of Hariri. Lebanese President Michel Aoun, a current Hezbollah ally, said that Lebanon would accept a court decision.

        According to the Washington Post, 56-year-old Salim Ayash, a Hezbollah operative convicted of the murder of Hariri, was a member of the secret special squad responsible for at least four other attacks by the Shiite Allah’s Party. According to sources who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the topic, the hitmen’s unit known as Unit 121 was under the control of Hezbollah leadership and operated under various names for many years, even before the February 2005 attack that resulted in Hariri and 21 others were killed

        1. vs Avatar
          vs

          Although the judges ruled that the Hezbollah leadership could not be linked to the murder of Hariri, the Washington Post reported that wiretapping and other evidence not included in the court records indicated the existence of a group of assassins in Hezbollah. He has been responsible for bombing car bombs against politicians, military personnel and journalists in Lebanon for at least ten years.

          Two American former officials said that intelligence information was provided to the tribunal members privately, but the material could not be used publicly for fear of disclosing sources and methods of gathering intelligence. Ayash, whose whereabouts are unknown, was a permanent member of the hit squad and its commander.

          Hezbollah has denied any connection to the assassination of the former prime minister, which led to massive protests in the country and the withdrawal of Syrian troops, but the same sources told the newspaper that the existence of the hitmen squad heightened doubts about speculation that the murder was committed by someone in Hezbollah, who stopped obeying the instructions of the command.

          “There is no doubt about that,” a former senior US security official replied when asked if Hezbollah really controls the unit. Hezbollah is a very disciplined organization, ”added another source who was involved in gathering intelligence after the assassination.

          The secret unit includes dozens of militants who are completely separated from other members of the organization. According to the source, the instructions come directly from Hezbollah General Secretary Hasan Nasrallah. Another high-ranking commander authorized to order the assassination was Mustafa Badr al-Din, the successor to Imad Mughniya, who was considered the head of the organization’s general staff and himself prosecuted as part of the investigation into Hariri’s murder. He was mysteriously murdered in Syria in 2016, and charges were dropped. In Israel, it was said that he was killed as part of the settlement of internal accounts in Hezbollah.

          The same source noted four other people killed by the undercover unit: Wissam Eid, the Lebanese investigator in the Hariri murder; Wissam al-Hassan, General of the Lebanese Army and Head of the Hariri Security Service; François al-Hajj, Lebanese general and Muhammad Shatah, economist and diplomat. They were all killed in car bomb explosions between 2007 and 2013.

          General Ashraf Rifi, former Lebanese Minister of Justice and former Director General of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces, has confirmed the existence of a secret unit. “Ayash was part of this circle,” he said in an interview.

          Hezbollah experts in the United States have long believed that Hizbullah leaders use liquidations to rid themselves of internal and external rivals and enemies. The Iran-backed organization specializes in the production of explosive devices (back in 1983, Hezbollah blew up the barracks of the US and French peacekeeping forces in Beirut) and is built in such a way that the blame does not reach the leaders.

          There are fears that Hezbollah will return to attacks on its rivals in the light of growing criticism after the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut earlier this month. Although no direct link has been established between Hezbollah and the thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port, which caused enormous destruction in the explosion, protesters in Lebanon chanted slogans against Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders.

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