Beirut, Lebanon – Rasha al-Ameen held up a placard with pictures of Lokman Slim, a Lebanese writer, Hezbollah activist and critic, who was shot dead last week. She was crying as the cameras covering the complaint were filmed.
Al-Ameen worked with Lokman at the UMAM Documentation and Research Center in Beirut, depositing some of the bloodiest chapters in Lebanese history, and saw it as an inspiration at a precise time for his country.
Suddenly in emotion, al-Ameen said: “Lokman is still alive!” She shouted that his killers could not keep quiet.
“Sifar Khauf, which means zero fear, is what Lokman would say,” she said. “We are repeating today. His killers cannot frighten us. “
At 2:16 am local time on the night of February 3, Monika Borgmann’s slim wife was worried: “Lokman is not answering her phone and has not been seen since yesterday, 8 PM. Please share any information … #LokmanSlim. “
Borgmann was concerned that her husband had not returned home, and that the family was living in constant fear of what had apparently appeared that night.
In the early hours of the next day, the body of the 58-year-old man was found in his car in a pool of blood in southern Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. He was shot four times, head and back.
Although his killers have not been identified, his family and friends have identified the blame at Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia and the Lebanese political party. Slim was a strong critic of the group and had previously said that if any effort was made in his life, Hezbollah should be held accountable.
“We don’t know the exact cause of his murder now but he had been receiving threats from Hezbollah for a long time,” al-Ameen said.
Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the killings, accusing opponents of targeting “incitement of disorder” for political gain and calling for a transparent investigation.
An image dated 10 October 2020, shows a Lebanese activist and Hezbollah criticized Lokman Slim [File: EPA]‘Communist and democratic’
Hatim Hamoud, who was also present at the protest, said he came to honor a co-ideologue. “Lokman was a communist and a Democrat,” Hamoud said. “He was killed in the south.” Ants cannot move there without Hezbollah’s knowledge. “
Hamoud, like many others, raised concerns that Lebanon could return to the days of political killings and bombings that it witnessed between 2004 and 2008.
“The well-locked iron gate on political assassination has reopened with the murder of Lokman and we suspect we will see more murders of critics,” he told Al Jazeera.
Narrow killings have created mixed sentiments among Lebanese, which has been trying for 16 months to overthrow the ruling elite and replace the old established power-sharing system with a new secular social contract. air sect.
While protesters say they are determined to stay the course, they acknowledge that Slim’s killing has renewed an old fear.
Luna Safwan, a young and inquisitive Lebanese journalist who was frequently threatened online for making anti-Hezbollah comments, was found to have “exploded GIFs of cars”.
Many of the murders in the 2000s were committed by car bombs, including the 2005 Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
“I feel that freedom of speech is under threat, not just me personally,” she told Beirut’s Al Jazeera. “There are some groups who don’t want us to do our job and murder is the only way to send a clear message about it. It reminds us of what he thought to mean back in 2005 in Lebanon. “
Protesters hold up pieces of paper with the Arabic words ‘zero man’ during the memorial service for Lokman Slim [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]‘Blood-stained hands’
Safwan’s brother, Jad Safwan, works at the Samir Kassir Foundation, an NGO named after the famous Palestinian journalist who was killed, also in a car bomb explosion, just months after Hariri.
Jad was present at the protest against a slender kill, which was held at the Kassir marble monument with his bronze statue sitting under a canopy of trees. He said it was impolite to try to seek justice.
“We’ve rarely heard of any improvement in the investigations in Samir’s case and it’s been so long,” Jad said.
Hariri’s son and the current prime minister, Saad Hariri, said at the time that “the bloody hands that killed Rafiq Hariri were the only ones that killed Samir Kassir”, meaning that the Syrian government and local Hezbollah allies were involved. .
The trial in the Rafiq Hariri murder case was filed by an international court over 11 years and was convicted directly of one of the four Hezbollah members accused of murder. But since the trial was held in absentia, and Hezbollah is believed to be defending it, even though it is free from scot.
‘Very pessimistic’
In the other murders of journalists, writers, and activists, no one was exposed.
There has been a culture of inhibition and no one now expects an honest investigation into the killing of Slim, the less they expect the culprits could go to jail.
“We are very optimistic,” said Ayman Mhanna, executive director of the Samir Kassir Foundation. Now other famous critics are also in danger. In any other country, law enforcement would be enforced if people were threatened in this way, but not here.
“These law enforcement agencies have received billions from France, Germany, the USA and the UK to purchase state-of-the-art equipment, and have received training from them. For what? Is the equipment just to be used against protesters, as a report by Amnesty International said, or to spy on journalists? This is a question for western parliamentarians to ask and find out what will be done with taxpayers’ money. “
Randa Slim, a relative of Lokman Slim and an analyst at regional politics, said an international effort was needed to try to seek justice in Lebanon. “It is going to require long-term and stable political organization, lobbying, and legal work within Lebanon and abroad to make that happen,” she said.
Hundreds gathered at a memorial service for Caol, in honor of a man who may not have been a household name in the country but was nevertheless an observer and was popular in the West as well. on local intellectuals.
Those he killed will never be found guilty in a country where the wheels of justice have been plundered. But in the minds of many Lebanese, slim will still survive as a member of an elite group of activists who hoped to speak their minds – even in personal danger.
“He was a kind man who cared deeply about Lebanon and never gave in to his views on a country where rule of law, freedom of expression, accountability, and justice should be at stake,” Randa Slim recalled , his friends. “He spoke truth to power and eventually paid the price in the end.”