Is Pascal Sleiman’s case out of the danger zone?

Is the high tension over in Pascal Sleiman’s case? Official quarters believe that this seems to be the case. On Monday evening, the Lebanese Army wrote on X that the Lebanese Forces (LF) coordinator for Jbeil was killed during an attempted car burglary in Kharbeh. The assailants then transferred his body to Syria.

Samir Geagea’s party does not perceive the case from this angle. Late in the evening, the LF said in a statement that the local official’s death was a “premeditated murder” that the LF “considers a political assassination until proven otherwise.”

The case took on a political tone on Sunday evening after the LF leader visited the party’s headquarters in person. A few hours after Sleiman’s kidnapping, Geagea decided to disregard what he has long perceived as “security threats” targeting him, leaving his stronghold in Maarab to be in Jbeil with his angry supporters. This was his first public trip since he took part in the September 2023 celebration marking the national day of Saudi Arabia, of which he is a major local ally.

The move of the LF leader — who sees himself as the spearhead of the opposition — seems to have enabled him to kill several birds with one stone. Firstly, he wanted to send a political message to his detractors, starting with Hezbollah. The LF had accused the Hezb of the assassination of Elias Hasrouni, an LF executive found dead in his native village of Ain Ibl in south Lebanon in August 2023.

Also, Geagea played on religious strings, presenting himself as the Christian community’s unifier, especially since the Sleiman case rallied other Christian parties around him including his rival, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).

Pascal Sleiman, originally from the village of Mayfouq, was attacked at around 6:15 p.m. on Sunday by men who blocked him while he was driving and forced his car off the road, in the area of Kharbeh.

A few hours later, angry LF supporters blocked the Jbeil highway as a means of pressure. The army’s intelligence services immediately seized the case. On Monday, the army arrested nine Syrian suspects, one of whom was allegedly directly involved in the incident, a security source told L’Orient-Le Jour.

Late on Monday evening, the army wrote on X that the detained Syrians confessed during the interrogation to killing the LF executive while attempting to steal his car. They also admitted to transporting his body to Syria.

“The army is coordinating with the Syrian authorities to arrange for Sleiman’s body to be returned to Lebanon, and is carrying on the investigation under the supervision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the troop added.

A few minutes later, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a statement calling for restraint and the continuation of the investigation.

‘This will not pass’

“This case is reminiscent of the traumatic kidnapping of Ramzi Irani [an LF executive found dead in May 2002, a few weeks after he had been reported missing] and several other crimes. Samir Geagea is aware of this highly emotionally charged atmosphere,” Karim Bitar, a political analyst, estimated before the developments in the evening.

“The LF leader took the risk of going [to Jbeil] to make it clear to everyone that this is not how they could intimidate our party,” LF spokesperson Charles Jabbour told L’Orient-Le Jour.

MP for Batroun Ghayath Yazbeck joined him on this point. “Let no one try to put us to the test,” he said, echoing the LF’s social media campaign “It will not pass.”

The case created high tension and political polarization from the outset, as evidenced by the leading opposition figures’ reactions. Only a few hours after the incident, the opposition figures said this will have consequences.

“This is particularly true since what happened on Sunday is a reflection of the state’s collapse, [while] the state should be responsible for the safety of its citizens,” MP Ziad Hawat (LF\ Jbeil) told L’Orient-Le Jour. Hawat expressed his fears that “the incident could happen again with anyone else.” “If the state can’t protect us, let them say it to us once and for all,” he told L’Orient Today.

Hawat thus joined his Kataeb colleague, MP Elias Hankash, whom Kataeb Leader Sami Gemayel dispatched to Jbeil. “We continue to rely on the state and the security forces. But we shouldn’t be blamed [for decisions that may be taken later]. We’re not going to [stand idly by] and mourn our executives every few months,” he told the press. He stressed “the LF and the Kataeb unity in the face of such incidents.”

The FPM as well

This Christian unity was quickly joined by the FPM, whose MP for Jbeil Simon Abi Ramia joined the sit-in. “Faced with this kind of thing, it’s only natural to take such a stand, particularly since Pascal Sleiman is a personal friend of mine,” he told L’Orient-Le Jour.

“By taking this stance, the FPM joined the general Christian mood, despite the fact that we [the LF] were the driving force behind this mobilization,” Yazbeck said.

“We want to tell the state we’ve had enough of its failings,” he added. “It’s not the LF who are leading the country into the unknown, but those who are skeptical about the army and obstruct the judiciary,” referring to Hezbollah, which the LF accused of blocking the investigation into the Beirut port explosion in 2020 and of leading the country towards war.

This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translated by Joelle El Khoury.