By Stephanie van den Berg Former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri , father of PM Saad Hariri was assassinated in downtown Beirut on February 14, 2005. Hezbollah operative Salim Ayyash was indicted in the killing of Hariri by a UN backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon but Hezbollah refused to hand him over to the court . Ayyash was sentenced to 5 life terms today Dec 11, 2020 THE HAGUE (Reuters) – The U.N.-backed Lebanon Tribunal on Friday sentenced a Hezbollah member convicted of conspiring to kill former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-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.