Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces (LF) party on Thursday decried in a post on X Syria's "refusal" to hand over those accused of kidnapping and murder of LF official Pascal Sleiman.
"Four months have passed since the assassination of the Lebanese Forces Coordinator in Jbeil, Pascal Sleiman, and the truth has not yet fully emerged," Geagea said.
Pascal Sleiman was head of the Lebanese Forces office in the Jbeil district. He was kidnapped on April 7 in Kharbeh by armed individuals during the alleged theft of his car. His body was found in Syria the following day and Syrian suspects were arrested in Lebanon.
"It is true that there are five detainees in the Lebanese Army Intelligence Directorate, but the gang leader Zakaria Zafer Qassem and one of the main elements, Firas Riad Memo, are still in the hands of the Syrian authorities, who refuse to hand them over to the Lebanese authorities," Geagea claimed.
"We ask the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs: Why do the Syrian authorities refuse to hand over Zakaria and Memo, who are wanted in the assassination of the Lebanese citizen Pascal Sleiman, while they are detained in Syrian prisons on the one hand, and wanted by the Lebanese judicial authorities on the other hand, and their arrest constitutes the gateway to revealing the background of the assassination and the parties behind it on the third hand?" Geagea added.
On May 14, First Investigating Judge of Mount Lebanon Nicolas Mansour issued arrest warrants for two suspects who were detained and interrogated. Five arrest warrants in absentia were issued for other suspects who had fled to Syria.
Initially, the LF pointed the finger at Hezbollah which denied any involvement in the murder.
While anti-refugee rhetoric is far from new in Lebanon, it spiked once the identity of the suspects was established.