...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...Tribunal on Friday sentenced a Hezbollah member convicted of conspiring to kill former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in a 2005 bombing to five terms of life imprisonment.
Salim Jamil Ayyash was found guilty in August of homicide and committing a terrorist act over the deaths of Hariri and 21 others in the attack on Beirut's waterfront.
The trial was conducted in absentia and Ayyash remains on the lam. Three alleged accomplices were acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
"The attack was intended to spread terror in Lebanon and indeed did," Australian Judge David Re said in reading out the court's decision. "The trial chamber is satisfied it should
impose the maximum sentence for each of the five crimes of a life sentence to be served concurrently."
Hariri's liquidation plunged Lebanon into what was then its worst crisis since its 1975-90 civil war, setting the stage for years of confrontation between rival political forces.
"Mr Ayyash's crimes are extremely grave, he had a central role in the attack," Judge Janet Nosworthy said.
"Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy, its politicians and leaders should be removed from office at the ballot box rather than by the bullet or a bomb," she said.
Prosecutors had called for a life sentence for each of the five counts Ayyash was convicted of.