<p>An international court on Friday sentenced a fugitive Hezbollah member to life imprisonment for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri and 21 other people.</p>.<p>Salim Ayyash, 57, was found guilty in absentia of murder and terrorism on August 18 by the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon over the suicide bombing that killed the Sunni billionaire politician and injured 226 others.</p>.<p>Ayyash remains on the run, with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, refusing to hand him over, alongside three other defendants who were eventually acquitted.</p>.<p>"Mr Ayyash participated in an act of terrorism that caused mass murder," chief Judge David Re told the UN-backed court.</p>.<p>"In the circumstances, the trial chamber is satisfied that it should impose the maximum sentence for each of the five crimes of life imprisonment to be served concurrently."</p>.<p>Ayyash was found guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, committing a terrorist act using an explosive device, the "intentional homicide" of Hariri, and of 21 other people, and attempted homicide of thise injured in the attack.</p>.<p>Hariri served as Lebanon's prime minister until he resigned in October 2004.</p>.<p>He was killed in February 2005 when a suicide bomber detonated a van filled with explosives as his armoured convoy drove past.</p>.<p>Prosecutors had said five concurrent life terms were the "only just and proportionate sentence" for Ayyash, given it was the "most serious terrorist attack that has occurred on Lebanese soil."</p>.<p>In their long-awaited ruling in August, judges said there was sufficient evidence to show that Ayyash was at the centre of a network of mobile phone users who scoped out Hariri's movements for months before his assassination.</p>.<p>But there was not enough evidence to convict Ayyash's co-defendants Assad Sabra, Hussein Oneissi and Hassan Habib Merhi, they said.</p>.<p>The judges added that there was no proof to tie Hezbollah's leadership or its allies in Damascus to the attack although it was probable "state actors" had been involved.</p>.<p>Legal experts said the sentencing was still important, even without Ayyash in the dock.</p>.<p>"In absentia trials are of course not the ideal way of dispensing international justice," Christophe Paulussen, senior researcher at the Asser Institute in The Hague, told AFP.</p>.<p>International tribunals were like "a giant without arms and legs" since they relied on states to arrest suspects and could not enforce orders themselves.</p>.<p>"But even with this handicap, the STL has now at least established a very authoritative judicial record about what happened 15 years ago, thus assisting the Lebanese society in moving away from a culture of impunity towards one of accountability," said Paulussen.</p>.<p>The UN Security Council agreed in 2007 to establish the court, billed as the world's first international tribunal set up to probe terrorist crimes.</p>.<p>It opened its doors in 2009, although the Hariri trial itself did not formally start until 2014.</p>.<p>The court has cost at least $600 million to operate and has so far heard only four cases, two of them for contempt of court about news reports with information about confidential witnesses.</p>.<p>Ayyash faces a separate case at the tribunal over three other deadly attacks on Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.</p>
<p>An international court on Friday sentenced a fugitive Hezbollah member to life imprisonment for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri and 21 other people.</p>.<p>Salim Ayyash, 57, was found guilty in absentia of murder and terrorism on August 18 by the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon over the suicide bombing that killed the Sunni billionaire politician and injured 226 others.</p>.<p>Ayyash remains on the run, with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, refusing to hand him over, alongside three other defendants who were eventually acquitted.</p>.<p>"Mr Ayyash participated in an act of terrorism that caused mass murder," chief Judge David Re told the UN-backed court.</p>.<p>"In the circumstances, the trial chamber is satisfied that it should impose the maximum sentence for each of the five crimes of life imprisonment to be served concurrently."</p>.<p>Ayyash was found guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, committing a terrorist act using an explosive device, the "intentional homicide" of Hariri, and of 21 other people, and attempted homicide of thise injured in the attack.</p>.<p>Hariri served as Lebanon's prime minister until he resigned in October 2004.</p>.<p>He was killed in February 2005 when a suicide bomber detonated a van filled with explosives as his armoured convoy drove past.</p>.<p>Prosecutors had said five concurrent life terms were the "only just and proportionate sentence" for Ayyash, given it was the "most serious terrorist attack that has occurred on Lebanese soil."</p>.<p>In their long-awaited ruling in August, judges said there was sufficient evidence to show that Ayyash was at the centre of a network of mobile phone users who scoped out Hariri's movements for months before his assassination.</p>.<p>But there was not enough evidence to convict Ayyash's co-defendants Assad Sabra, Hussein Oneissi and Hassan Habib Merhi, they said.</p>.<p>The judges added that there was no proof to tie Hezbollah's leadership or its allies in Damascus to the attack although it was probable "state actors" had been involved.</p>.<p>Legal experts said the sentencing was still important, even without Ayyash in the dock.</p>.<p>"In absentia trials are of course not the ideal way of dispensing international justice," Christophe Paulussen, senior researcher at the Asser Institute in The Hague, told AFP.</p>.<p>International tribunals were like "a giant without arms and legs" since they relied on states to arrest suspects and could not enforce orders themselves.</p>.<p>"But even with this handicap, the STL has now at least established a very authoritative judicial record about what happened 15 years ago, thus assisting the Lebanese society in moving away from a culture of impunity towards one of accountability," said Paulussen.</p>.<p>The UN Security Council agreed in 2007 to establish the court, billed as the world's first international tribunal set up to probe terrorist crimes.</p>.<p>It opened its doors in 2009, although the Hariri trial itself did not formally start until 2014.</p>.<p>The court has cost at least $600 million to operate and has so far heard only four cases, two of them for contempt of court about news reports with information about confidential witnesses.</p>.<p>Ayyash faces a separate case at the tribunal over three other deadly attacks on Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.</p>