Lebanon army says receives suspect in Christian party official’s killing

Lebanon’s army says it has taken into custody a suspect in last year’s killing of a Christian political official, with help from Syria’s new authorities, in a case that sparked public outrage.

Pascal Sleiman, a coordinator in the Byblos (Jbeil) area north of Beirut for the Lebanese Forces (LF) Christian party, was abducted and killed in April 2024. The army had said he was killed in a carjacking by Syrian gang members who then took his body across the border.

The army received “one of the main individuals involved in the crime of kidnapping and killing” Sleiman after coordinating with Syrian authorities, a military statement says.

The suspect “heads a gang involved in kidnapping, robbery and forgery and has a large number of arrest warrants against him,” the statement says, adding that investigations are underway.

Sleiman’s LF party opposed Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December, as well as its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

Beirut and Damascus have been seeking to improve ties since the overthrow of Assad, whose family dynasty for decades exercised control over Lebanese affairs.