Lebanon sentences six in killing of UN peacekeeper, main defendant gets death penalty

Associated Press

a day ago

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's military court convicted six people accused of killing a U.N. peacekeeper, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Tuesday. Lebanese officials said the chief defendant was sentenced to death.
'UNIFIL welcomes the conclusion of the trial process and the Government of Lebanon's commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice,' it said in a statement.
UNIFIL did not give further details, but three Lebanese judicial officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the court had issued a death sentence in absentia Monday against Mohammad Ayyad, the main defendant in the case.
The ruling
Ayyad had been arrested in December 2022 in connection with the killing of Pvt. Seán Rooney, 24, an Irish peacekeeper. He was released on bail in November 2023 after his lawyer provided medical documents showing he had cancer.
Monday's court ruling, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, handed down a fine of 100 million Lebanese pounds (about $1,117) to Ayyad in addition to the death sentence. Three others — Hussein Suleiman, Mustafa Suleiman and Ali Hakim — received only fines, while defendants Ali Khalifeh and Ali Suleiman were sentenced to one and three months in prison, respectively. A sixth defendant, Mohammad Mezher, was acquitted.
Ayyad was not present for the session, with his attorney saying he was ill and hospitalized, while the other defendants appeared in court, the Lebanese officials said.
The night of the attack
On the fatal night, Rooney and several other Irish soldiers from UNIFIL were on their way from their base in southern Lebanon to the Beirut airport. Two U.N. vehicles apparently took a detour through the town of Al-Aqbiya, which is not part of the area under the peacekeepers' mandate, when a mob opened fire at them.
Initial reports said angry residents confronted the peacekeepers, but the indictment concluded that the shooting was a targeted attack and alleged that the defendants were linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese officials said the defendants who appeared in court Monday had testified that some of them were watching a sports match and noticed a vehicle passing suspiciously several times on a narrow residential street, leading a crowd to gather. They claimed that they were unaware the vehicle belonged to UNIFIL.
Hezbollah officials did not respond to requests for comment.
UNIFIL and Hezbollah
UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel's 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country's south for the first time in decades.
Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon frequently accuse the U.N. mission of collusion with Israel, while Israel has accused the peacekeepers of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah's military activities in southern Lebanon.
The peacekeeping force's mandate is up for renewal in August for the first time since last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a U.S.-mediated ceasefire in November.