LEBANESE ANTI-HEZBOLLAH ACTIVIST, PUBLISHER FOUND DEAD IN HIS CAR

Thu 04 February 2021:

Lebanon security forces have found the body of prominent Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim shot to death after he went missing Thursday night in the country’s southern region, which is heavily controlled by the Iran-backed extremist group.

Lokman Slim had not been heard from by his family since getting in his car on Wednesday evening to drive back to Beirut.

“He was found dead in his car, killed by a bullet to the head,” an official told the AFP news agency on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

His body was transported to a hospital in Sidon where a forensic coroner said Slim was received four bullets to the head and one to his back, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Slim, an activist and publisher who ran a research center, was reported missing by his family late Wednesday night into Thursday morning after he visited a friend’s house in a village in Lebanon’s southern region.

“My brother Lokman Slim left Niha al-Janoub six hours ago heading back to Beirut and he has not yet returned. He is not answering his phone. There is no trace of him in hospitals,” his sister Rasha al-Ameer wrote on Twitter at 3:44 a.m. Beirut time.

A journalist, political analyst and activist known as one of the leading Shia voices criticising Hezbollah, Slim was regularly attacked in media loyal to the powerful group.

Slim was often criticised by Hezbollah supporters for being instrumentalised by the United States.

After Slim was found killed, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s son Jawad shared an Arabic tweet that translates to “Loss of some is in reality an unexpected gain and kindness for others” with the hashtag “no sorrow.”

He then deleted the tweet that he said it was personal and was not intended in the way that some understood it as subtweet on the death of the activist.

“The tweet has nothing to do with what is happening. A little awareness,” he said.

Shortly after Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim found dead, Hezbollah Sec. Gen. Hassan Nasrallah’s son Jawad tweets “loss of some is in reality an unexpected gain and kindness for others” with hashtag “no sorrow.” pic.twitter.com/l7ar4KOBmA

— David A. Daoud (@DavidADaoud) February 4, 2021

Interior minister Mohammed Fahmi, quoted in local media, called Slim’s killing a “horrible crime”.

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun called on the public prosecution to carry out a swift investigation into the murder.

The Future Movement, led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, condemned the assassination. “We warn of the risks of returning to a series of assassinations and targeting activists,” it said in a statement.

Bassem Sabeh, a former Shia member of Parliament and a critic of Hezbollah, said Slim’s assassination was a “direct messages to all activists, writers and politicians from the Shia community, who mobilise and express their ideas outside of Hezbollah’s political orbit”.

Veteran journalist Diana Moukalled said Slim’s apparent assassination was the consequence of his outspokenness and Slim had been subject to “direct threats” and smear campaigns by Hezbollah-affiliated and allied media in recent years.