When Lebanese anti-Hezbollah publisher and documentary producer Lokman Slim did not return home after visiting a friend in a rural village on Wednesday night, his sister Rasha had a very bad feeling. Her brother was increasingly concerned about his fate, and even predicted last year that if he overcame anything, Hezbollah, the Shia Islamic militant group whose loyalty to the political party of the Resistance Bloc is very influential in the Lebanese parliament, ‘full responsibility bear for what has happened and what can happen. ”
At dawn, Rasha al-Ameer posted urgent messages on Facebook and Twitter, including one in which she says she lost contact with her brother. “My brother Lokman Slim left Niha from the south 6 hours ago, on his way to Beirut, and he is not back yet,” she wrote. “His phone is not being answered. Anyone who knows about him can please contact me. ‘A few hours later, police found his body in his car with two fatal bullet holes in his skull.
Friends of the outspoken Hezbollah critic initially assumed he had been abducted, worried about growing threats following a recent television appearance in which he criticized the drastic political situation in Lebanon and called for action to form a new government. Slim, 59, recently reinforced his criticism, claiming that “the claim to Lebanon’s neutrality today, despite its importance, remains unenforceable in light of Hezbollah’s domination of the country and government.”
Lebanon’s acting prime minister, Saad Hariri, has condemned Slim’s assassination, and Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi has called it “horrific”.
Bassem Sabeh, a former lawmaker, told Arab News the assassination was a “direct message to all activists, writers and politicians from the Shia community, mobilizing and expressing their ideas outside Hezbollah’s political arena.”
Slim, who studied in France, is described in Lebanese news reports as “the most prominent and fiercest” opponent of Hezbollah “who made him vulnerable to accusations and threats from the party and its supporters at other times.”
His sister Rasha told reporters on Thursday that she found out via a news alert what happened to Slim while she was at the police station to report him missing. What a great loss. And they also lost a noble enemy … It is rare for anyone to quarrel with them and live with respect among them, ”she said. “Killing is the only language in which they are powerful.”
Police have not yet attributed the murder of the journalist to anyone.