STL Convicts Another 2 Hezbollah Members in Rafik Hariri’s Murder

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri listens during a cabinet meeting in Beirut September 20, 2004. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri listens during a cabinet meeting in Beirut September 20, 2004. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi
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STL Convicts Another 2 Hezbollah Members in Rafik Hariri’s Murder

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri listens during a cabinet meeting in Beirut September 20, 2004. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri listens during a cabinet meeting in Beirut September 20, 2004. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

Appeals judges at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Thursday convicted another two Hezbollah members on charges of terrorism and murder for their role in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, reversing their earlier acquittal.

"The appeals chamber had unanimously decided to reverse the acquittals (...) we unanimously find misters (Hassan Habib) Merhi and (Hussein Hassan) Oneissi guilty," Presiding judge Ivana Hrdlickova said in a summary of the judgement read out in the UN-backed court at The Hague.

The prosecution had appealed against the acquittal of the two men, saying there had been fundamental errors in the judgment.

Appeals judges said that the lower trial chamber wrongly assessed the circumstantial evidence in the case, which was based almost entirely on mobile phone records, when they acquitted Merhi and Oneissi.

In 2020 a lower trial chamber convicted a former member of Hezbollah, Salim Jamil Ayyash, for the bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others at the Beirut seafront. All three men have been tried in absentia and remain at large.

The court said Merhi and Oneissi will be sentenced at a later date and issued fresh arrest warrants for both men following Thursday's convictions.



Houthis in Yemen Say They Won’t End Support for Gaza

 Houthi supporters chant slogans during a weekly anti-US and anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Houthi supporters chant slogans during a weekly anti-US and anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
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Houthis in Yemen Say They Won’t End Support for Gaza

 Houthi supporters chant slogans during a weekly anti-US and anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Houthi supporters chant slogans during a weekly anti-US and anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)

A top leader of the Iran-backed-Houthi militias in Yemen said they will keep up their support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip until Israeli “aggression stops, and the siege is lifted.”

“Our operations in support of Gaza will not cease, no matter the sacrifices,” said Mahdi al-Mashat in a statement Wednesday.

The Houthis are the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.

They have been firing long-range missiles at Israel in the months since it resumed the war in Gaza, setting off air raid sirens but generally causing few casualties. They have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.