Four years after the arrest of the Lebanese citizen Ali Hassan Saab, and after a two-week trial before the Supreme Court in New York, the US Department of Justice announced that Saab, a member of Hezbollah, was convicted of receiving military training from Hezbollah, perpetrating a marriage fraud plot, and making statements liar. The Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that Saab was acquitted of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to Hezbollah, one count of citizenship fraud, and one count of naturalization fraud. The maximum possible sanctions are to be determined by Congress.
The jury unanimously found Ali Saab, known as Alexei Saab, guilty of receiving military training by Hezbollah, a known terrorist organization, the statement said. The attorney general noted that evidence at trial showed that Saab monitored some of New York’s most famous sites—the United Nations Headquarters, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Empire State Building, airports, tunnels, and local bridges—in order to provide crucial intelligence on how to most effectively attack them. According to the documents and evidence presented during the trial, Saab joined Hezbollah in 1996, and his first mission was in Lebanon, where he was assigned to monitor and report on the movements of Israelis and members of the Lebanese army in Yaron. In 2000, he resided in the United States and continued to receive military training in Lebanon. He was assigned by the party to open a company that he could use to obtain fertilizer in the United States for use as explosives.
The statement issued by the Ministry of Justice described Hezbollah as a Shiite Islamic organization that has political, social and terrorist components, and stated that it was founded with the support of Iran, and its mission includes the establishment of a fundamentalist Islamic state in Lebanon.
The statement issued by the New York Attorney General and the US Department of Justice referred to the Islamic Jihad Organization, also known as the External Security Organization and “910”, as a component of Hezbollah responsible for planning and coordinating intelligence, counterintelligence and terrorism activities for Hezbollah outside Lebanon. The statement enumerated the series of activities carried out in more than one country by this organization.