Death Sentence against Two Culprits in Caracas Shooting in May

Military Tribunal Judge Imad al-Zein issued on Thursday the death penalty against Hani al-Shanti and Azzam al-Hussein over the Caracas shooting that occurred in May.

The two culprits were charged with attempted murder, carrying out terrorist acts, violently responding to security forces and the possession of illegal weapons.

In May, security forces stormed a building in Beirut after a nighttime shootout with gunmen holed up inside a flat, in an incident which left two dead and seven wounded.

One gunman was killed in the shootout, another wounded and the body of a man was found inside the flat in west Beirut's Caracas district.

The spark for the shootout was a personal dispute between at least one of the men and a woman in her early 20s. The dead man and the woman, detained in the incident, were Syrian nationals.

Gunmen subsequently lobbed grenades and began shooting at the security forces from the flat, wounding at least six policemen and soldiers. The military said it found a large amount of weapons in the flat.

Shanti, according to media reports, allegedly belongs to a 13-member group affiliated with al-Qaida and is said to have been linked to the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.