this is news coming to you live from berlin a u.n. tribunal convicts a hezbollah militant of murdering lebanon's former prime minister of course in the take says. the 2005 truck bombing that killed 3 but 3 other defendants in the case are surprisingly closer. and german chancellor angela merkel has a national dialogue in battle roosts as the country is gripped by the rest she tells presently his government must avoid using violence against peaceful protesters and

were released political prisoners. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us and u.n. back tribunals has convicted a senior member of the lebanese militant group hezbollah for the assassination of the country's former prime minister rafik hariri a court in the hague said salim orchestrated the 22005 operation to kill riri with a massive truck bomb but the tribunals cleared 3 other defendants finding they had no links to hezbollah leadership or aries assassination up ended life in lebanon setting the stage for years of unrest. a suicide truck bomb blasts ripped through beirut some valentine's day 2005 an explosion so powerful it was hurt and felt across the city 22 people lost their lives that day.

including the targets of the attack. lebanon's former prime minister rafiq hariri it was an assassination that transformed lebannon removing an influential sunni muslim leader and allowing shiite forces led by the militant group hizbollah to come to dominate lebanese political life now over 15 years later a guilty verdict in connection with the killings trial chamber therefore finds mr guilty beyond reasonable doubt as a copa traitor of the intentional homicide of mr rafik hariri the same evidence also establishes beyond reasonable doubt his knowledge and his intention to commit the intentional homicide of 21 other people the ruling was handed down by a un backed tribunals in the netherlands set up to try those suspected of involvement in the 2005 attack. the judges found there was enough evidence to show

. how to carry out the bombing he has never been arrested and was tried in absentia 3 other defendants were acquitted. among those present to hear the verdict rafik hariri son sad hariri. year old today because of the special tribunal for lebanon for the 1st time in the history of political assassinations that lebanon has witnessed the lebanese find the truth. for the 1st time of the tribunals delivered through justice. who's also a politician serving as lebanese prime minister until earlier this year said the judges supported his view that his father was assassinated for his opposition to syrian interference in lebanon on. the role of hezbollah remains murky though the

tribe you know found i asked was affiliated with the group it said there was no evidence the hezbollah leadership ordered refeed career is murder joining us now here in the studio is from d.w. arabic good to have you with us. you're from lebanon back in 2005 that bomb attack killed 22 people were scores injured what does this verdict today mean for their families it's a long awaited it's a long awaited investigation process the class that 15 years and that caused the lebanese states more than one bill proximately $1000000000.00 so the results were definitely being a wait for for such a long time we heard that heavy the other son of the prime minister rafik hariri the prime minister if it had any what he said right after the verdict he said this now we know the truth and now we wait for justice to be served. by justice he means

of course having the person who's found guilty of this being sentenced and this person who belongs to him. has vanished like a ghost no one knows where he is and hezbollah has repeatedly said that they will not hand him over so now the question is what hezbollah do to make justice be served in lebanon truth is one thing just of course quite another how is the news of this verdict going down in lebanon and in beirut in particular or are people there are simply too distracted by their current crises the lebanese have been dealing with multiple crisis from more than a year onwards and this verdict comes at a time when baby wood is dealing is busy dealing with picking itself up from the explosion that took place 2 weeks ago when in fact the explosion the verdict was delayed 2 weeks due to the explosion that took place so the lebanese are busy picking up their homes finding shelters after their houses have been bombed they're

also trying to deal with a huge economy crisis and a huge failure of the banking system their money is trapped in the banks they don't have access to them on top of that the cruel enough virus we've witnessed a surge in the numbers of course positive viruses in the last few days almost 40500 daily cases and that's a big number for small country like lebanon so the lebanese already have a lot of faith so handsome well that's not their top priority at the moment however we've seen people who support. a party or a party and people who support hezbollah we're kind of waiting to see what kind of reactions they will have although all major parties hope have called for people to calm down and await for any official statements to come out ok leadership was not implicated in this ruling but the one person who was found guilty is considered to be a member. has not been very cooperative with this trial to say the least do you think

that this verdict will have any impact on hezbollah standing in lebanon hezbollah has accused the court of the international court of being politicized from the beginning he called it israeli american and in various occasions has on the cell has said that the results of this of this verdict do not relate to them and they're not really waiting for them to happen because they don't consider them to be transparent however the big question is at the moment what hezbollah do because the verdict apparently accuse only one person and acquitted squee other members of hezbollah so now the question is how was hezbollah to react to that what kind of position will it have and will this incident be a kind of turning points making the lebanese all come together at this very specific difficult for and that lebanon is going through all will its or more violence that's the question well thank you very much for your insights. from our

arabic service thank you terry. now let's get a look at some of the other stories making news around the world this hour gunfire has been heard at an army base outside the mali in capital bamako and what appears to be a mutiny in the west african country's military reports say the army has rested several top politicians to including the president the prime minister government employees have evacuated their workplaces to seek safety. in the united states the democratic party is holding its national convention as a as a virtual event for the 1st time due to the coronavirus pandemic it kicked off with a rousing speech from former 1st lady michelle obama the democrats will formally nominate joe biden as their candidate for president in the november election. and authorities on the indian ocean island of moriches have arrested the captain of a japanese owned ship which ran aground off the island spewing tons of oil into the

pristine waters the spill spread over a vast area of endangered corals fish and other marine life in what some scientists have called the country's worst ecological disaster. german chancellor angela merkel urged the government to embed a ruse to avoid violence and start a national dialogue with a yell position that's as the country continues to be gripped by under arrest in the aftermath of president lukashenko is widely disputed election win here's what machall had to say about situation earlier today. tomorrow the european council will hold a video conference about a reeves i spoke with russian president putin today i once again make here that there must be freedom of expression the freedom to protest the prisoners must be released under house to be a national dialogue that enables the situation to be resolved peacefully and valerie's who will just does not further tomorrow. comments comin all go

in standoff between antigovernment protesters a long time ruler has been resisting calls to step aside but citizens are showing 3rd up. there the pressure on president alexander lukashenko is growing and the resistance is growing bolder. this video shows a heated exchange with striking workers at a truck to factory young men. don't worry i will not beat you up it is not in my interest but if somebody provokes something here we will sort it out the hard way put the phone down. tempers and by the roots are running high on both sides and europe's embattled strongman is facing opposition isn't it. a nationwide strike was attended by thousands some of whom booed and heckled the president. at one event on monday told the new elections where possible but

only after the country's had a referendum on a new constitution. his critics say it's a bit to buy time. more than a week after the controversial election anti government protests show no sign of letting up a good thing in the eyes of the country's exiled opposition leader he conveyed words of encouragement from her jailhouse spent in a new video message. husbands are gates asks me to convey his words to you or he and other political prisoners are in jail but also he asks you to move forward. not just sit back but you do everything to live in this country for life. the people who are filling the streets will say i have the support of many in the international community. tolerating dissent may have to become part of an exam that

because franco is in the reality. let's bring in russia analyst constantine eggert in moscow now constantine do you see any strategy behind the way the president look at shake i was responding to these unprecedented protests well there is an instinctive strategy definitely and this is to basically buy time when he talks about the constitution of which she didn't speak of in 5 days ago he's talking about this and this discussions about something that will provide for a possibility of him to stay in power and i think that does he will find some support for that from mr putin when he spoke today to chancellor merkel and to the e.u. need a shout they all talked about dialogue and i think that there is a different understanding of dialogue in moscow in minsk on one side and berlin

paris and brussels on the other what the e.u. means by dialogue is some kind of productive dialogue that will bring some kind of resolution and putin that look a single think the dollar is just a device for them to go on talking about something without releasing power and without actually changing something on the ground so there is a strategy where it will lead to some other question. both russia and the e.u. have a stake in what becomes of belarus looking is looking to moscow for support but do you think that leaders have any leverage in this situation. they do but the question is whether they will be right if you use it and i think this. this cautious outreach to putin will only make putin think that the e.u. is not that interested and this is afraid of you may make him a player in what is basically a bilateral issue and i think that good people use it he is probably very keen to

look at shankar to exit in one piece but he's even more keen on keeping control and probably actually strengthen his control of bill roost if you catch a good dose he has money for that he has a propaganda machine he has huge intelligence separate us in place and the ability says a member of several treaty is to reach russia is also signatory which binds billups to russia and the russian economy is going to go to russia so i think that putin will try and play all cards to on the one hand prevent some kind of big bloodshed because it will badly really reflect on him but on the other hand to keep here are they the european union and they and he is calculation is essentially that eventually the e.u. will lose interest and it didn't have much let's admit it just before the elections . and thank you as always for your insights that was russia analyst constantine in moscow. you're watching t.v.

news from berlin i'm terry march and you can always get all the latest news and information anytime you want on our website that's the w dot com and also follow us on twitter and instagram at news you'll find me on twitter at t.m. news stream thanks for being with us. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour corona up to. $1000.00 special next on d.v.d. .