The Judicial Council in Lebanon sentenced to death...

The Judicial Council in Lebanon sentenced to death Ahmad Ali Mansour after he was convicted of deliberately shooting eight people dead and injuring four others, at a shoot-out in the private teachers' fund at UNESCO, Beirut, on July 31, 2002. The Judicial Council, headed by Judge Tanios Khouri issued a final judgment, which cannot be appealed, nine months after the murder that was described as "the UNESCO massacre." It was alleged that Mansour, 45, entered the office where he had been working for the previous 25 years, pulled out two machine guns and sprayed his colleagues with bullets. The 53-page verdict sentenced Mansour to death for the premeditated and intentional murder of Rachel Rahmeh, Moussa Choueiri and Carlos Salameh, all employees and co-workers at the private teachers' fund, according to article 459 of the penal code. The verdict also sentenced Mansour to a lifetime of hard labor for intentionally murdering Maroun Moussa, Maria Tabet, Sukaina Harqous, Hugette Feghali, and Suleiman Jamous, and deprived him of his civil rights. Mansour was also sentenced to 20 years of hard labor for the attempted murder of other people, who were in the building. However, according to the country's laws, Mansour was sentenced to death since that verdict was the most severe. The court said Mansour had "perpetrated this dangerous crime in cold blood and calm," and that it had been "proceeded by premeditation and planning." "The crime also undermined social peace, which denies him the right to extenuating circumstances," the court said. According to the Judicial Council, Mansour planned the murders because he had been forced to return a Mercedes 600, which he had bought using the fund's money.