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Lebanese activist shot dead

2021-02-04T19:58:05.413Z


Lokman Slim, found in his vehicle with four shots to the head, was a vehement critic of Hezbollah and the rest of the country's political class


The prominent Lebanese writer and political activist Lokman Slim was found dead Thursday in his vehicle in southern Lebanon.

The 58-year-old intellectual "was shot four times in the head," Judge Rahif Ramadan told the Lebanese newspaper

L'Orient le Jour.

The perpetrators of the crime are unknown.

A vehement critic of Hezbollah and the rest of the Lebanese political class, Lokman had previously received death threats.

The murder has sparked outrage on social media on the same day that Beirut marks six months since the brutal explosion that shook the capital's port last August, killing 205 people and wounding more than 6,500.

The Lebanese Interior Minister, Mohammad Fahmi, has assured that the security forces will search for those guilty of the "horrible crime".

The El Futuro party, led by the incoming Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, has shared his concern that this crime represents a “return to political assassinations”, referring to the wave of attacks suffered between 2007 and 2008 against political figures in the country .

Hezbollah has joined the condemnation through a statement in which it asks "the competent authorities to work quickly to identify and punish the guilty" and denounces "the political and media exploitation [of the crime] at the cost of internal security and stability. ”.

After conveying his condolences to the family, the EU ambassador to Lebanon, Ralph Tarraf, has deplored “the culture of impunity that prevails in Lebanon around these heinous acts” and has called for an investigation to be carried out.

The crime takes place at a time when the country is going through a historic economic crisis and the Government has lost all legitimacy with its population.

Slim's sister and wife were the first to raise the alarm on social media Wednesday night by warning of his disappearance after he visited a friend in the southern town of Niha.

“Lockman is not answering his phone and he has not been seen since eight in the afternoon.

Please share any information, ”his wife, Monika Borgmann, tweeted.

Lokman is not answering his phone and he has not been seen since yesterday, 8 PM.

Please share any information ... #LokmanSlim

- Monika Borgmann (@MonikaBorgmann) February 4, 2021

Shortly before the news of the death was known, Professor Makram Rabah and a friend of Slim indirectly pointed out in another tweet to the Shiite parties Hezbollah and Amal: “We hold the parties that control the area and the Lebanese state responsible for their security and their quick return ”.

Several dozen protesters have gathered in front of the Justice Ministry in Beirut on Thursday to protest Slim's murder.

“Hezbollah weapons.

Against whom? ”, It could be read in the banners waved during the protest under the face of the Shiite activist.

Rasha Al Ameer, the activist's sister, has assured Agence France Presse that Slim has been assassinated for his “political positions”.

Followers of the Hezbollah militia party have been critical of the writer, accusing him of serving as an instrument for US interests in Lebanon.

Slim has also openly criticized the Lebanese political class, which the popular protest movement has been trying to overthrow since October 2019. In 2005, after a crisis in garbage management unleashed a wave of protests in Lebanon, the writer founded the association civilian Hayya Binna (“Let's go”, in Arabic), with which last year he set up a tent in Beirut's Martyrs Square, then the epicenter in the capital of the activists who attack the leaders, whom they call corrupt and inept.

Co-founder together with his sister of the publishing house Dar Al-Jadeed, the scholar also launched with his wife the NGO UMAN to investigate and preserve the memory of those who disappeared during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990).

The organization's headquarters are in Haret Hreit, on the southern outskirts of Beirut and a stronghold of Hezbollah.

"I'm not afraid.

We must break the cultural monopoly exercised by the Party of God over the Shiites, ”he told this newspaper years ago at the facilities, which have hosted photographic exhibitions on popular uprisings in Syria and Lebanon as the bus on which in 1975 Christian militias perpetrated the massacre of 22 Palestinians, one of the sparks that sparked the civil war.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-02-04

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