British Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin has voiced his complaints to Lebanese officials concerning the sluggish progress of the probe into the assassination of Sean Rooney, an Irish peacemaker. Despite the suspects continuously failing to attend court in Lebanon, the case has been postponed for the seventh occasion until February of the following year.
The Gardaí, aided by the Defence Forces in Ireland, have accomplished their independent inquiry into the demise of the soldier from Donegal for the purposes of drafting a coroner’s report. It is anticipated that an official examination into Private Rooney’s death will be convened soon.
At the age of 24, Private Rooney was executing his duties as part of the Unifil mission in Lebanon when his armoured convey was assaulted while en route northwards through Al-Aqbiya, a region under the control of Hizbullah, a militant group backed by Iran.
In the incident, Private Rooney lost his life due to gunshot wounds while Trooper Shane Kearney, from Killeagh in County Cork, sustained serious injuries. The vehicle collision caused two more Irish soldiers to suffer minor wounds.
An individual named Muhammad Ayyad was subsequently apprehended and held under suspicion of participating in the assault. After spending a year in custody, Ayyad was discharged by a Lebanese military court for medical reasons. Since then, he has been absent from all successive hearings, the latest of which was on June 7th, 2024.
Four other individuals accused over the same incident — Hussein Salman, Ali Salman, Mustafa Salman, and Ali Khalifeh — have never shown up to court, and their current locations remain a mystery.
The Irish authorities have voiced their growing exasperation at the disappointing progress and management of the ongoing probe. Following the most recent hearing in June, Mr Martin once again got in touch with the Lebanese officials expressing his discontent with the scenario. He also made contact with the UN.
While addressing the Dáil, he expressed his significant disappointment regarding the slow-paced progress of the case. During a journey to Lebanon in May, he discussed the status of the case with the Lebanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, as a primary subject.
The Taoiseach Simon Harris has also broached the issue during his telephone conversations with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati.