When Lebanese anti-Hezbollah editor and documentary filmmaker 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. His brother was increasingly concerned about his fate, even predicting last year that if anything happened to him, Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamist militant group the political party of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc has great influence in the Lebanese parliament, he had “full responsibility for what happened what could happen.”
Rasha al-Ameer posted urgent messages on Facebook and Twitter in the morning, including one in which he said he had lost contact with his brother. “My brother Lokman Slim left Niha from the south 6 hours ago, on his way to Beirut and he has not returned yet,” he wrote. “His phone is not answered. Who knows, can you contact me please. “A few hours later, police found his body in his car with two deadly bullet holes in his skull.
Friends of the outspoken Hezbollah critic had initially assumed he was being kidnapped, 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, had recently expanded his criticism, telling Arab News that “the claim of Lebanon’s neutrality, despite its importance, remains inapplicable in light of Hezbollah’s dominance in the country and government.” .
Lebanon’s acting prime minister, Saad Hariri, condemned Slim’s assassination and the country’s interior minister, Mohammed Fahmi, called him “horrible”.
Bassem Sabeh, a former lawmaker, told Arab News that the assassination was a “direct message to all activists, writers and politicians in the Shiite community, who mobilize and express their ideas outside Hezbollah’s political orbit.” .
Slim, who studied in France, was described in Lebanese news as Hezbollah’s “most prominent and fierce” opponent “who made him vulnerable to the accusations and threats of the party and its supporters on other occasions.”
His sister Rasha told reporters Thursday that she learned what happened to Slim through a news alert while he was at the police station to report him missing. “What a great loss. And they also lost a noble enemy … It’s weird that someone argues with them and lives among them with respect, “he said.” Killing is the only language they speak fluently. “
Police have not yet attributed the murder of the journalist to anyone.