Another assassination

last updated 8 January 2015

Beirut

Another top Lebanese political figure was killed in a car bombing in Beirut this week. Gibran Tueni was a member of parliament and a newspaper publisher best known for his strong criticism of Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs. He had just returned from Paris, where he’d been staying for fear of assassination. The murder came just hours before the release of a new U.N. report confirming the involvement of Syrian officials in the February murder—also by car bomb—of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Lebanese parliament has asked the U.N. to expand the Hariri investigation to include the murder of Tueni and attacks on other politicians and journalists. Several Lebanese politicians openly blamed Syria for Tueni’s murder; the Syrian government called the allegations “preposterous.”