A Lebanese court sentenced a man to death in absentia for killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper, a judicial official said Tuesday, after Hezbollah members were accused of involvement in the 2022 incident.<\/p>\n
Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were wounded after a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy came under fire on December 14, 2022 in south Lebanon, long a stronghold of the Iran-backed militant group.<\/p>\n
The judicial official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to brief the media, said Lebanon’s military court issued its ruling in the case at around midnight on Monday.<\/p>\n
The court “imposed the death sentence… on the main defendant, Mohammad Ayyad”, the official said, adding that the ruling was issued in absentia.<\/p>\n
A security source told AFP in December 2022 that Hezbollah had handed Ayyad over to the army that month.<\/p>\n
But he was released from custody in November 2023 “for health reasons” and had not appeared at any trial session since, the official said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The military court also handed a combination of fines and lighter custodial sentences to four other people “who handed themselves in to the court hours before the session” and acquitted a fifth, the official said.<\/p>\n
UNIFIL said in a statement that it “welcomes the conclusion of the trial process and the government of Lebanon’s commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice”.<\/p>\n
Skirmishes occur occasionally between UNIFIL patrols and Hezbollah supporters, but they rarely escalate and are generally quickly contained by Lebanese authorities.<\/p>\n
In June 2023 a judicial official told AFP that five Hezbollah members were accused of killing Rooney.<\/p>\n
A Hezbollah official had denied members of the group were involved.<\/p>\n
UNIFIL, which counts around 10,000 peacekeepers from nearly 50 countries, acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel and operates in the south near the border.<\/p>\n
str-lk\/lg\/ami<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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