At the time, anti-Syrian legislators and politicians, as well as Lebanon’s influential Maronite Catholic Church, demanded an international investigation and trial following the discovery of the grave.

Syria denied any involvement, calling the accusations a pretext to damage Damascus, which has come under heavy international pressure to cooperate with the U.N. inquiry into Hariri’s assassination.

The investigation has implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the massive truck bombing that killed Hariri and 20 other people in Beirut in February 2005. Syria has repeatedly denied involvement in the killing.

Syria’s exoneration clears up a sore point between the two countries whose bilateral relations are at their lowest point in decades.