A prominent Lebanese writer and strident Hezbollah opponent was found dead in his car in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning, hours after disappearing while driving to Beirut.
Police said Lokman Slim, 59, a well-known political commentator, was shot in the head. He was an outspoken critic of the militant group and political power that regularly drew the ire of his followers.
Jawad Nasrallah, son of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, tweeted minutes after his death was confirmed: “The loss of some people is actually an unplanned gain – sorry.” He later deleted the message and stated that he was not referring to Slim.
The assassination of yet another critical voice in Lebanon has once again sparked anger at a political class that is powerless or unwilling to hold murderers accountable. In the past few decades, murders have routinely been used as political weapons, with almost all of them unsolved and the impunity surrounding them becoming a fact of Lebanese life.
The murders of Lebanese public intellectuals have been relatively rare, however, with Slim’s murder, the first of its kind since the murder of history professor and journalist Samir Kassir 16 years ago.
“He was loved, he was humble and people loved him,” said Slim’s sister, Rasha Slim. “Their opponents lost a noble fighter who lived among them, and they debated them with intelligence, reason and love. This is a loss for the whole of Lebanon. Murder is an unworthy act, it sets an example for the work we kill who disagrees with us. Murder is his only language; we know who is responsible for the area where my brother was killed. “
In recent months, Slim told friends and visitors to his home and studio in the southern suburbs of Beirut that his enemies had threatened him. His office was in the heart of Dahiyeh’s Hezbollah fortress, where he regularly spoke against the group and its positions. Hezbollah labeled him a Shi’ite Muslim who turned against the group. Two years ago, Hassan Nasrallah described Slim as an “embassy Shiite”, referring to his close contacts with foreign diplomats.
Slim also played an important role in anti-government demonstrations that spread across Lebanon from October 2019, setting up a tent in the central district of Beirut, in which he protested the country’s leadership and government system and defended neutrality with the neighbor Israel, with whom Lebanon technically remains at war.
He maintained a non-profit organization, Umam, which functioned as a cultural exhibition and a historical archive of the missing during the Lebanese civil war. He also had a civic group, called Hayya Bina, and made several films with his wife, Monika Borgmann.
Slim’s death prompted some Lebanese leaders to warn of a further fall in illegality, as the country struggles with a major economic collapse, a political stalemate and the consequences of the devastating explosion that destroyed Beirut’s port last August.
Six months after the explosion, investigations stalled, with large parts of the political establishment united in opposition to the investigation and uncomfortable with continued scrutiny. “If they want to talk about impunity, start with that disgrace,” said Joseph Hammad, a delivery driver. “They arrested the port guards and protected the politicians who caused them.”
Aya Majzoub, a Lebanese researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Lebanese authorities have publicly pledged that the investigation into the explosion that killed more than 200 people and devastated half the city would take five days, but six months later, the public is still waiting for answers.
“In addition, the court handling the case appears to have trampled on the rights of defendants held to due process, signaling that they are unable or unwilling to do justice.”