CV NEWS FEED // Tensions have arisen in Lebanon following the murder of Christian leader Pascal Sleiman on April 7, as his political party has declared the incident politically motivated.
Sleiman was a coordinator in the Byblos area for the Christian political party called Lebanese Forces (LF). L’Orient Today reported that on Sunday, four armed individuals in a stolen car ran Sleiman off the road in his own car and blocked his path.
The news outlet added that a statement released by the Lebanese Army on Monday said Sleiman was killed while resisting a carjacking attempt.
“He had resisted the initial attack, so the account goes, and the men had hit him in the face and head with the butts of their revolvers in an attempt to subdue him and placed him in the trunk of his own car,” L’Orient Today reported.
Sleiman’s car was subsequently stolen and later found in Syrian territory. His body was discovered Monday evening in Syria, and returned to Lebanon Tuesday afternoon.
L’Orient Today added that the Lebanese Army has arrested seven Syrians who belong to a car theft gang and are allegedly in connection with the murder. Despite claims that the incident was only a carjacking that turned into murder, the Lebanese Forces are calling it politically motivated.
“Supporters of the Christian party and, to a lesser extent, its cadres point the finger at Hezbollah [Lebanon’s Muslim political party], claiming the party, currently fighting Israel across Lebanon’s southern border, was trying to send a message to its opponents in the context of heightened political polarization,” L’Orient Today reported.
An anonymous former security official told L’Orient Today that the fact that Sleiman was kidnapped is suspicious, since “it’s hard to see why the gang kidnapped the victim if it was just an attempt to steal his car.”
“The fact that he was kidnapped indicates that the kidnappers were more interested in his person, perhaps because he is an LF executive, but above all because he is a senior executive in a bank.”
Lebanese and Syrian citizens have had issues with banks since October 2019, when banks imposed illegal capital controls and made it virtually impossible for people to access their money, L’Orient Today added.
The news outlet also reported that Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah denied all connection to the murder in a speech Monday,
“This affair has nothing to do with politics or Hezbollah. It turned out to be the work of a gang of Syrians and Lebanese who wanted to obtain a ransom,” he said.
An anonymous military source told L’Orient today that the murder was not politically motivated.
“Pascal Sleiman’s profile—a discreet man who was well-liked by everyone, even by opponents of the LF—does not fit this kind of motive. If someone wanted to send a message to the LF, they would have targeted a more well-known figure,” the source said.
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