Beirut, SAEDNEWS, Feb. 13: Rasha al-Ameen was holding up a placard bearing photographs of Lokman Slim, the Lebanese writer, activist and prominent Hezbollah critic, who was shot dead last week. She wept as the cameras covering the protest filmed.
Al-Ameen worked with Lokman at Beirut’s UMAM Documentation and Research Centre, archiving some of the bloodiest chapters in Lebanon’s history, and saw him as an inspiration at an exacting time for her country.
In a sudden outpouring of emotion, al-Ameen screamed: “Lokman is still alive!” She shouted that his killers could not silence dissent.
“Sifar Khauf, which means zero fear, that’s what Lokman used to say,” she said. “We are repeating it today. His killers cannot scare us.”
At 2:16am local time on the night of February 3, Slim’s wife Monika Borgmann anxiously tweeted: “Lokman is not answering his phone and he has not been seen since yesterday, 8 PM. Please share any information… #LokmanSlim.”
Borgmann was worried because her husband had not returned home, and because the family lived under the constant fear of what, it turned out, had transpired that night.
In the early hours of the next day, the body of the 58-year-old was found in his car in a pool of his blood in Hezbollah-dominated south Lebanon. He had been shot four times, in the head and the back.
While his killers have not been identified, his family and friends have pointed the finger of blame at Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia and political party in Lebanon. Slim was a vociferous critic of the group and had said in the past that if any attempt were made on his life, Hezbollah should be held responsible.
“We don’t know the exact reason why he was killed now but he had been getting threats from Hezbollah for a long time,” said al-Ameen.
Hezbollah has denied any role in the killing, accusing opponents of aiming “to incite chaos” for political gain and calling for a transparent investigation (Source: AlJazeera).
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