Terror organization: Hezbollah;

Status: Senior member at unit 121, Hezbollah assassination squad;

Role: One of the “key players” in the assassination team that plotted and executed Hariri’s assassination;

Location: Lebanon;

Born: 12 December 1965;

Place of Birth: Lebanon;

Gender: Male;

Known also as: Hasan Habib Merhi;

Activities:

Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi were acquitted in August 2020. Both men had been tried by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on charges of terrorism and murder for their alleged role in the 2005 assassination by bombing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. The trial – in absentia – was the result of fifteen years of investigations. The prosecution had appealed, saying that the Trial Chamber had “erred” by ruling there was not enough evidence. On March 10, the appeals judges agreed that the 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. They said the trial judges had “committed errors of law invalidating the judgment and errors of fact occasioning a miscarriage of justice”, according to a statement from the STL. Instead the appeals judges found them guilty of being accomplices to the bombing of Hariri’s convoy.

HASSAN HABIB MERHI (MERHI) was born on 12 December 1965 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Habib MERHI (father) and Latifa ABBAS (mother). He has resided at: Section 27, eastern Façade, 2501, Bourj-El-Barajneh, Baabda, in South Beirut. He is a citizen of Lebanon. His Lebanese civil registration is 1126/Zqaq-El-Blat.

Charges:

– Conspiracy aimed at committing a Terrorist Act;
– Being an accomplice to the felony of committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device;
– Being an accomplice to the felony of intentional homicide of Rafik Hariri with premeditation by using explosive materials;
– Being an accomplice to the felony of intentional homicide of 21 other persons with premeditation by using explosive materials;
– Being an accomplice to the felony of attempted intentional homicide of 226 persons with premeditation by using explosive materials.