Prominent Lebanese Activist Hezbollah Critic Murdered

Photo: Mohammed Zaatari, AP

A prominent Lebanese publisher and vocal critic of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group was found dead in his car Thursday morning, shot multiple times at close range, security and forensic officials said.

According to source, Slim was shot in his chest, head and neck, killing him on the spot. Blood was splattered over the passenger seat of a rental car, where his body had apparently fallen.

One of the security sources also said Slim, who ran a research centre and made films, was shot in the head. The second said Slim’s phone was found earlier on the side of a road.

They said the motive was not immediately clear.

Slim, in his late 50s, was a leading Shi’ite voice who spoke against what he saw as Hezbollah’s intimidation tactics and accused them of intolerance of other political views.

He was last seen after leaving the house of a poet friend on Wednesday night. His family said he went missing overnight. His wife tweeted that he was not answering his phone.

A relative said they found out about his death from a news alert while at a police station to report his disappearance.

Lebanon’s caretaker interior minister told local media Slim died in “a terrifying crime” and pledged to pursue the case, which he called “an assassination”.

Slim had made documentaries with his wife and led efforts to build an archive on Lebanon’s sectarian 1975-1990 civil war.

His criticism of Hezbollah faced rebuke from supporters of the heavily armed movement, who sometimes called him “an embassy Shi’ite,” accusing him of being a tool of the United States.