An assassination verdict divides Lebanon

Almost a decade ago, I went to Lebanon to investigate who had killed its Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. It was a momentous event in the Middle East, and it changed this tiny, beautiful state forever.

Hariri was killed on Valentine’s Day 2005 alongside 21 others after a bomb exploded as his motorcade drove through central Beirut. Today, 15 years later, the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), set up in the wake of his death to bring those responsible for it to justice, finally returned its verdict.

Salim Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, Assad Hassan Sabra and Hassan Habib Merhi, all accused of being members of the terror group Hezbollah, have been on trial in absentia since 2014. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has publicly refused to extradite them, and even referred to them as ‘saints’, warning that the tribunal was ‘playing with fire’ while its findings could well ‘ignite an inner conflict’. They remain at large to this day.