15 years on: will there be justice for Rafik Hariri?
▶ If those who killed him can get away with their crime, they may well get away with anything
In the heart of Beirut, a massive placard depicting Rafik Hariri, the country’s slain statesman whose name is synonymous with an era of relative prosperity, no longer bears the slogan: “We want the truth”.
After his assassination on February 14, 2005, supporters of the former prime minister had put up a counter on the placard, marking the days since he was murdered. Too small to display the digits, now in their thousands, the counter froze up and was later removed. The slogan, too, faded from placards and memory.
Fifteen years on, no one has been held accountable for Hariri’s killing. The investigation, led by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, is set to reveal its verdict next month. The suspects in the killings, all of them Hezbollah operatives, were tried in their absence. Evidence of a political assassination is overwhelming and the identity of the culprits an open secret.
Hariri’s killing was part of a wave of assassinations targeting 22 public figures opposed to the Syrian regime in Lebanon. Hariri had to step down from the premiership in 2004 as Damascus’ hold over Beirut intensified. Syrian tutelage was overthrown by the Cedar Revolution of 2005, a popular revolt that followed the killing of Hariri. But since those days, Hezbollah and the Syrian regime have only grown stronger as their decades-long crimes have gone unpunished. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was never interrogated, nor was his close ally, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
While the court’s verdict is long overdue, its timing reveals how pivotal the statesman’s killing was for Lebanese history. In January 2005, Lebanon was a phoenix rising from ashes of wars past. Beirut attracted investors, tourists from the Gulf and beyond. It was a beacon of hope symbolising better days to come. Today, it has become increasingly difficult for Lebanese to hold on to that hope. Since last November, the country has plunged into an economic crisis. According to the World Bank, 60 per cent of Lebanese will be destitute by 2021. Those who opposed Hariri have found new allies, including President Michel Aoun, who returned to Lebanon in May 2005 after a long exile.
To keep the country from delving into chaos, Hariri’s son Saad, who was prime minister twice, compromised with those who had a hand in his killing. In keeping with his father’s tradition, Saad Hariri tried to maintain consensus politics to protect Lebanon. But Hezbollah and its allies turned their backs on the country.
On August 7, the tribunal has a chance to show that justice will prevail. But Detlev Mehlis, the first commissioner appointed by the UN to investigate Hariri’s killing, said in a 2016 interview that a more robust international mechanism is needed to prosecute suspects in the case. With no means of enforcing their verdict, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah-backed government unlikely to hand any suspects to The Hague, the verdict is set to be a disappointment. Hariri’s murder robbed Lebanon of a great statesman and denied Beirut the stability and prosperity it deserves. The long-awaited verdict of the Special Tribunal shows that unpunished crimes will be repeated.