It’s been over two months now since Lebanese publisher, political activist and commentator Lokman Slim was murdered in his car South of Lebanon and we still don’t have any leads. This is not the first political murder that goes unpunished and won’t be the last, but the UN is keen on unveiling the truth and for that purpose has requested three experts to follow up on this case and pressure the Lebanese authorities.
Those experts are UN rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Agnes Callamard; Diego Garcia-Sayan, special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; and Irene Khan, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and will be tasked to pressure the Lebanese authorities to capture the murders to ensure justice is delivered and to build public trust in the national judicial system before it is irremediably compromised.
Slim’s assassination is the first killing of Lebanese intellectuals since the murder history professor and journalist Samir Kassir 16 years ago. “Jawad Nasrallah, the son of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, tweeted minutes after his death was confirmed: “The loss of some people is in fact an unplanned gain #notsorry.” He later deleted the message and claimed he had not been referring to Slim.” [Source]
Let’s hope efforts of the UN experts will yield results, even though it’s far fetched.