Absent Hezbollah members sentenced to life terms for killing former Lebanese PM

The aftermath of the explosion which left former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri and 21 other people dead (AP Photo/Saleh Rifai, File)

Appeals judges at an international tribunal sentenced two members of the militant Hezbollah group to life imprisonment on Thursday for their roles in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the deaths of 21 other people in 2005.

Neither of the convicted men, Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, has been arrested and sent to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Netherlands. They were tried in their absence and remain at large.