The announcement of the death of former minister Ahmad Sami Minkara. (Credit; NNA)
BEIRUT — Former Lebanese minister Ahmad Sami Minkara died on Monday at the age of 85.
A retired general, Minkara was the Tourism Minister under Rachid Solh in 1992 and Education Minister from 2004-2005 in the cabinet of Omar Karami.
He was also Mayor of Tripoli between 1992 and 1998.
His funeral will take place on Tuesday in the Abi Samra district of Tripoli.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, also from Tripoli, paid tribute to Minkara in a public statement Monday. "Today we bid farewell to a national and Tripolitan personality who left a notable mark at all levels," he wrote.
"He was the very example of a statesman who believed in national, religious and human values, in all the positions he held."
MP Faisal Karami, leader of the Karameh ("dignity") Movement to which Sami Minkara was close, paid tribute to him in a public statement, saying that Lebanon and Tripoli "have lost a national monument."
"I have lost a brother, a friend and a master of loyalty and integrity," Karami wrote.