Mahmoud Bazzi, who was convicted of killing Irish soldiers Derek Smallhorne and Thomas Barrett in 1980, was released after serving 8½ years of 15-year sentence
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A long road to justice for two murdered Irish soldiers
Updated / Tuesday, 13 Apr 2021
20:57
On 18 April 1980, three army privates were stopped by a militia known as the De Facto Force
Security Correspondent, Prime Time
John O Mahony spent 40 years waiting to see the man who shot him and murdered his colleagues brought to justice.
In December, a seven-judge military court in Lebanon found 76-year-old Mahmoud Bazzi guilty of the murders of Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne.
The verdict came five years after John stood in front of those judges to recount the events of 18 April 1980. That is the man who shot me, John told the court, pointing directly at Mr Bazzi.
Conviction of man who murdered two Irish soldiers in 1980
Long running trial over Lebanon killings
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The Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney, has been notified of the conviction by a Lebanese Military Tribunal of the perpetrator of the murder of two Irish soldiers in Lebanon in 1980.
On April 18, 1980, Private Thomas Barrett and Private Derek Smallhorne were murdered and one soldier, Private John O’Mahony was seriously injured in the same incident in Lebanon. The personnel were serving as peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
At the village of At-Tiri, a convoy, which included the three Irish soldiers, was stopped and all the personnel were taken prisoner by de-facto forces. The Defence Forces personnel were disarmed and separated from the rest of the group. Private O’Mahony was shot and seriously injured while Privates Barrett and Smallhorne were murdered.