The head of the Lebanese Forces in Jbeil, Pascal Sleiman. (Credit: X)
BEIRUT — The coffin of the head of the Lebanese Forces' (LF) Jbeil district office, Pascal Sleiman, arrived on Wednesday to Saydet al-Mouanat Hospital in Jbeil, according to LF's official website. The coffin was transported from the Central Military Hospital in Badaro, in Beirut, on Wednesday morning and passed through several stations where LF supporters were gathered in the areas of Nahr al-Mot, Zouk, Nahr Ibrahim and finally near an LF center in Jbeil.
According to the official investigation launched by the Lebanese army, Sleiman was killed on Sunday by a group of Syrian people in Jbeil during an attempted car burglary and his body was then taken to Syria.
The victim's body was taken to the Central Military Hospital on Tuesday for an autopsy and an examination in aid of the investigation currently underway before it is handed over to his family. A source in the LF was not immediately available for a request to comment on the autopsy.
According to the official website of the LF, the coffin was received on Wednesday "with an atmosphere of great sadness from Sleiman's comrades and loved ones amid the scattering of rice and flowers."
In Nahr al-Mot, LF songs were put loudly on speakers and a large picture of Sleiman was raised. People raised LF flags while waiting for the coffin to pass.
In Nahr Ibrahim, MPs followed by supporters carrying the coffin, walked on a street amid fireworks. In Jbeil, LF supporters carried the coffin, enrolled in the Lebanese and LF flags.
On Wednesday, a video shared on social media showed LF supporters shouting "terrorist, terrorist, Hezbollah, terrorist" when Sleiman's coffin passed by Nahr al-Mot (Metn). L'Orient Today could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Also on Wednesday, an extraordinary meeting between student organizations of the LF, Kataeb Party, Ahrar, among other parties, took place in Dbayeh following the murder of Sleiman, according to state-run National News Agency. After the meeting, the head of the LF student organization Abdo Emad said that the Lebanese state has not yet revealed the details of the crime and that Sleiman's killing could become a "spark for building a strong state ... including the return of Syrian refugees to their country and the surrender of illegal weapons."
Following the murder of Sleiman, tensions between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces spiked. The LF released a statement on Tuesday about Sleiman's murder in which it blamed Hezbollah’s “illegal presence,” which it says has “hampered the role of the state,” leaving room for “armed gangs and chaos." The LF also blamed “porous borders” with Syria, which it says Hezbollah has turned into a strategic route between Tehran and Beirut “under the name of unity of the fronts." On Wednesday, Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Kabalan, who is close to Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, thanked the "Lebanese Army for protecting the country from a sedition that some were about to create."
Sleiman's funeral, which will be officiated by the Maronite Church leader Bechara al-Rai, will be held on Friday, Apr. 12, at Saint George Church in Byblos, at 1 p.m. Sleiman will then be buried in the cemetery of Notre Dame d'Elige.