Lebanon sentences six Hezbollah members over 2022 killing of Irish peacekeeper

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon's military tribunal has sentenced six people over the 2022 killing of an Irish peacekeeper in southern Lebanon, two judicial sources told Reuters on Tuesday, and a Lebanese security source said all six were members of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah's media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judicial sources said one man was sentenced in absentia to death, another was sentenced to three months in prison and four others were ordered to pay fines ranging from about $1,100 to $2,200. A seventh man was acquitted.

The judicial sources named the man sentenced in absentia as Mohammad Ayyad. The security source said Ayyad had been briefly detained in connection with the case then released. He could not be reached for comment.

Private Sean Rooney, a 23-year-old peacekeeper with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), was killed on Dec. 15, 2022 when the UNIFIL vehicle he was in was fired on in southern Lebanon.

It was the first fatal attack on U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon since 2015.

In January 2023, the Lebanese military tribunal charged seven people over the attack. In June of that year, a court document identified some of them as members of Hezbollah, the armed group that controlled the area of the south at the time the attack took place.

The charges against the seven men ranged from murder to damaging a vehicle.

In a written statement on Tuesday, UNIFIL welcomed the conclusion of the trial process and Lebanon's "commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice."

(Reporting by Laila BassamWriting by Maya GebeilyEditing by Peter Graff)

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