Lebanon on Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Samir Kassir, a prominent Lebanese journalist and intellectual killed by a car bomb in 2005.
Two decades on, the perpetrators of his murder, which was part of a wave of killings of people opposed to the grip Syria had over Lebanon, have never been held accountable.
On Sunday an art installation called Dream Manifesto opened on Samir Kassir Square in central Beirut. Named after an article he wrote in 2004, it is part of the Beirut Spring Festival, organised by the Samir Kassir Foundation, and is described as “a tribute to his belief that, despite our reality, we still have the right, and the power, to dream in this region”.
The installation is dedicated to Mr Kassir and his wife Giselle Khoury, a journalist who died after a long battle with cancer in October 2023. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who attended Sunday's event, paid tribute to Mr Kassir, and said “his word lives on”.
“Today, I recall Samir’s voice, thought, and pen – he who carried the cause of freedom and democracy in the face of tyranny and tutelage, and who wrote with the courage of one who knew that the truth is uncompromising,” he said.
Speaking at the event, Rana Khoury, the daughter of Giselle, highlighted the important of justice and freedom when remembering Mr Kassir and Ms Khoury. Culture Minister Ghassan Salame echoed this sentiment, calling for accountability for killings, like that of Mr Kassir, that have gone unpunished.
Tuesday will bring the 20th edition of the Samir Kassir Award, which recognises the work of journalists who “hold the powerful accountable, to expose corruption, and to give a voice to the voiceless”, said Sandra De Waele, ambassador to Lebanon of the EU, which grants the award. She said that, 20 years on from its creation, the award “remains as relevant as ever”.
Mr Kassir was well-known for his columns in the popular newspaper Al-Nahar, where he regularly spoke out against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, its influence on Lebanese affairs and the grip of intelligence services on the country. His assassination has often been blamed on the Lebanese armed group and political party Hezbollah – an ally of the Assad regime in Syria, which was deposed last December.
He is one of many prominent Lebanese figures assassinated after railing against the Syrian presence in Lebanon. The Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon in April 2005 after nationwide protests over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in a car bombing the previous month. While its troops left, Syria's influence over Lebanon never really went away.
But with the Assad regime toppled by a lightning rebel offensive last December and Hezbollah diminished by Israel's war on Lebanon last year, there are renewed hopes that justice may be done for Mr Kassir and others like him. More generally, there is optimism that Lebanon's era of widespread impunity and a judiciary in thrall to political influence may end.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which works to protect press freedom around the world, said the impunity surrounding the murder of Mr Kassir and other journalists killed in Lebanon “not only dishonours his memory but also sends a chilling message to journalists across the region: that truth-telling can be fatal, and justice may never follow”.
Earlier this year, in his first visit to Syria since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Salam requested the new Syrian government's help in handing over suspects linked to bombings in Lebanon. Mr Salam was appointed in January, days after Lebanon ended a two-and-a-half-year presidential vacancy when parliament elected former the army commander Joseph Aoun as the country's new head of state.
Mr Aoun has repeatedly reiterated that independence of the judiciary must be respected, while Mr Salam has vowed to reopen the stalled investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut explosion – another national catastrophe for which no one has been held accountable.
