Thousands of Lebanese mourn slain Christian political official

AFP | Beirut

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Thousands of Lebanese yesterday mourned a slain Christian political official authorities said was killed by a Syrian gang, with supporters pointing the finger at Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group.

Pascal Sleiman was a coordinator in the Byblos (Jbeil) area north of Beirut for the Lebanese Forces (LF) Christian party, which opposes the government in neighbouring Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

On Monday, the army said that Sleiman, who had gone missing the day before, was killed in a carjacking by Syrian gang members who then took his body across the border. His party said it would consider Sleiman’s death a “political assassination until proven otherwise”.