BEIRUT: The following is a background on the assassination of Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri:

• Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated on Feb. 14, 2005, when a massive car bomb detonated his motorcade as he drove past the St. George Hotel in Downtown Beirut.

   

• The incident was initially widely blamed on Syria, which had until that point been responsible for Lebanon’s security with its three-decade-long military presence. This led to further tensions in the already-strained relations between the two neighbors.

   

• The following month, March 14, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese took to the streets to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops, which had been stationed in Lebanon since 1976 as a result of the Civil War. In April, Syria withdrew it troops, creating both a power vacuum as well as a chance for Lebanon to establish a democratic sovereign state.

   

• After several years of investigations, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up in The Hague to find and prosecute those responsible for the 2005 car bomb.

   

• While many people expecting that the tribunal would lead to the indictment of Syrian officials, the investigation took an unusual turn in April 2009, when four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals held since 2005 were freed after the U.N. court in The Hague found that there was not enough evidence to convict them. This was followed by a May report in the German publication Der Spiegel stating that members of Hezbollah were likely involved in the assassination.