Lokman Slim, an activist and publisher who ran a research centre, was assassinated in February. Photo: Reuters
Lokman Slim, an activist and publisher who ran a research centre, was assassinated in February. Photo: Reuters
Lokman Slim, an activist and publisher who ran a research centre, was assassinated in February. Photo: Reuters
Lokman Slim, an activist and publisher who ran a research centre, was assassinated in February. Photo: Reuters

New judge to take over Lebanon investigation of Lokman Slim killing


Sunniva Rose
  • English
  • Arabic

The investigation into the killing in February of prominent Lebanese intellectual and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim will start again later this month after a five-month break, a high-ranking judicial source told The National.

Beirut First Investigative Judge Charbel Abou Samra is expected to hear plaintiffs’ claims on October 21, said the source.

Under Lebanon's system, an investigative judge carries out pretrial inquiries into allegations of crime and in some cases makes a recommendation for prosecution.

No accused party will be present because no one has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Slim, 58, who was found shot dead in his car on February 4 in south Lebanon on the side of a busy motorway near Saida city.

“We have been waiting for this the whole summer,” said Slim’s widow Monika Borgmann. “Things are moving forward.”

Neither the family nor their lawyer Moussa Khoury had been officially notified of the hearing at the time of writing, but the judicial source said that this should take place on Monday.

Lebanon has been suffering for the past two years from a crippling economic crisis the has caused the near-collapse of public services, including the state power utility.

Legal proceedings are delayed.

The investigation was put on hold after being transferred from Saida city, to Mr Abou Samra in Beirut in June, at the request of state prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat.

Mr Abou Samra had a choice between taking over the investigation himself or handing it over to another judge.

A lawyers’ strike and a two-month judicial holiday, which happens annually, were major factors in the five-month interruption in the probe.

Mr Khoury said that such transfers of an investigation may take place when a judge believes that public safety is at risk. This could include protests or public displays of anger triggered by controversial cases.

Hezbollah, which Slim’s family believes is responsible for his death, has a strong influence in south Lebanon. Legal experts previously told The National that the first judge to work on Slim’s death, Rahif Ramadan, was close to Hezbollah’s political ally the Amal Movement. Mr Ramadan denies this.

Information gathered by Mr Ramadan has been transferred to Mr Abou Samra, who can also work with documents provided by Slim’s family and ask for assistance from the local police or another judge, said the judicial source.

Hezbollah, which also has a powerful national and regional militia, has repeatedly rejected accusations that it is linked to Slim’s killing.

Yet a report recently published by Lebanese media watchdog Skeyes shows that high-profile pro-Hezbollah journalists led a Twitter campaign to vilify Slim shortly after his death. They both denigrated Slim as an irrelevant commentator and accused him of collaborating with the US and Hezbollah’s arch-enemy Israel.

Slim, who co-ran a local NGO with his wife, had been receiving death threats for more than a decade. In December 2019, after threats were placarded directly on his home’s walls, Slim wrote that the leaders of Hezbollah and its ally Amal should be personally held responsible if something happened to him. Slim lived in a Hezbollah controlled southern suburb of Beirut, home to his family for more than a century.

His killing added to a list of political assassinations in Lebanon, a grim phenomenon that some trace back to the start in 1975 of a bloody 15-year civil war, when Saida-born politician Maarouf Saad became the first prominent victim.

Killers are rarely found or jailed. Activists often criticise what they call Lebanon's “culture of impunity and political interference” in judicial processes.

UN human rights experts called in March for the Lebanese government to ensure a “credible and effective investigation” into Slim’s death, writing that authorities should consider embedding a unit of international experts to advice and support local probes into political assassinations.

Try out the test yourself

Q1 Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 per cent per year. After five years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?
a) More than $102
b) Exactly $102
c) Less than $102
d) Do not know
e) Refuse to answer

Q2 Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 per cent per year and inflation was 2 per cent per year. After one year, how much would you be able to buy with the money in this account?
a) More than today
b) Exactly the same as today
c) Less than today
d) Do not know
e) Refuse to answer

Q4 Do you think that the following statement is true or false? “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”
a) True
b) False
d) Do not know
e) Refuse to answer

The “Big Three” financial literacy questions were created by Professors Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington School of Business and Olivia Mitchell, of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Answers: Q1 More than $102 (compound interest). Q2 Less than today (inflation). Q3 False (diversification).

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Updated: October 09, 2021, 5:20 PM