Rafic Hariri

In 1965, Hariri had married an Iraqi lady called Nida Bustani. The couple had three sons: Bahaa, Saad, and Houssam. After a couple of years, he divorced his wife.

In 1976, he married Nazik Audi. Hariri had four children with his second wife.

Hariri was assassinated on 14 February 2005, while he was driving past the St. George Hotel in Beirut. His assassination case is still being investigated by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Apparently, the Syrian Government is said to have links with this murder.

Rafic Hariri was born on November 1, 1944 in the Lebanese port city of Sidon, in a Sunni Muslim family. He had two siblings: brother, Shafic and sister Bahia.

In his early years, Hariri attended the Sidon Secondary School. After pursuing his basic schooling, he completed graduation in business administration from the Beirut Arab University.

In 1965, Hariri moved to Saudi Arabia where he started his career as a teacher. However, after some years, he pursued a career in the construction industry.

In 1969, he established a small subcontracting firm, called the Ciconest. Unfortunately, this business endeavor turned out to be an unsuccessful one. Hariri then collaborated with the French firm Oger and completed the construction project of a hotel in Saudi Arabia. This project became the milestone project of his career and after this he took over the Oger firm, which then became the major construction firm that was used by the Saudi Royal Family for all their development works. As a result of extensive Royal support and high-end construction projects, Hariri soon became a multi-billionaire.

Having accumulated a considerable amount of wealth, Hariri started a number of philanthropic projects in Lebanon. He also donated a hefty amount, to the victims of the South Lebanon Conflict.

In 1983, Hariri started his career in politics, as a political advisor Prince Bandar bin Sultan., After the collapse of the PLO and due to the lack of viable Sunni Leadership, he was implanted as a Saudi diplomat.

Being a competent diplomat, Hariri played a vital role in the formulation of the 1990 Tiaf Agreement, which also ended the sixteen-year civil war in Lebanon.

The ‘Horizon 2000’ economic policy was the most significant contribution of Rafic Hariri. This project played a significant role in re-developing the city of Beirut and converting it to an Urban Hub. With this policy, he also privatized the industries and made remarkable improvements in the tax laws and tax codes. As a result of this powerful economic policy, the real national income of Lebanon increased to 6%.