The Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced Thursday that it will deliver its verdicts in the case of the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri and his companions in a public session in May 2020. "The Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has given notice that it will deliver its Judgment in the Ayyash et al. case (STL-11-01) in public session in mid-May 2020," the court said in an official statement. Last February, the court issued a decision to proceed with a trial in absentia against Salim Jamil Ayyash who is accused of terrorism and intentional homicide. He is one of four Hezbollah members tried in absentia by the tribunal for masterminding the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others and wounded more than 220 passers-by on February 14, 2005.