
The photo of Pascal Sleiman put up during his funeral in Mayfouk, April 12, 2024. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Two of the six people detained on suspicion of their involvement in the murder of Lebanese Forces official Pascal Sleiman were questioned by the First Investigating Judge of Mount Lebanon during a hearing on Tuesday.
The Sleiman family lawyer, Eliane Fakhri, confirmed the hearing occurred and that a third suspect who was also due to be questioned Tuesday asked for a postponement so that he could acquire a lawyer. Fakhri said the first two suspects were questioned without the presence of a lawyer and that the hearings lasted over four hours.
The detainees are being prosecuted by the Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor's Office in the case of Sleiman's murder during what Internal Security described as an attempted car robbery gone afoul, and what the Lebanese Forces say was a political assassination. Sleiman, the regional manager for the party's Jbeil district office, went missing from a road near Kharbeh on April 7 and his body was discovered over the border in Syria the following day.
Three other people arrested for the murder are still in detention and are awaiting hearings to be held at a later date, which has not been specified, likely for security reasons, Fakhri said.
In total, eleven suspects, including both Lebanese and Syrian nationals, have been implicated in the case. Of these, five are still on the run, and are thought to have fled to Syria. Three of them, including two brothers, are believed to be the masterminds behind operation — although the exact nature of the crime and its intentions remain a vague outline.
Following their interrogations, Judge Mansour issued arrest warrants for two suspects, an administrative procedure by which the presiding judge reaffirms that the suspects should remain in custody. Five arrest warrants in absentia were also issued for the five suspects who fled to Syria.