US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea stressed Monday the importance of holding accountable the killers of Lebanese activist and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim.
Shea’s remarks came during talks she held with Lebanese Minister of Justice Marie-Claude Najm over the assassination of Slim and the ongoing investigation.
Slim’s family denied calling for an international investigation into the crime but demanded an effective and professional inquiry amounting to an international level.
”Some media and platforms are conveying inaccurate news that the family of Slim refuses to cooperate with the Lebanese security services, based on the family’s desire to resort to an international investigation into the assassination,” the statement said.
It explained that the family confirms their full cooperation with the Lebanese authorities, the judiciary and the police, since the first hours after Lokman’s disappearance.
“We count on the Lebanese judiciary and those in charge of the investigation to uncover the criminals who decided, planned, carried out and covered the assassination, as soon as possible, to preserve justice and later to the truth and to prove that Lebanon has not yet become a country outside the rule of law,” the statement read.
“Saying an international investigation means demanding an investigation that would raise its efficiency and professionalism to the level of international investigations,” the family said.
The family said Lokman never wanted to acquire any nationality other than his Lebanese nationality.
Slim, a 58-year-old political activist and commentator, was found dead with six bullets in his body Thursday on a deserted rural road in the country's south. He was visiting friends there and was due back in Beirut late Wednesday when his family reported him missing.
Last week, Shea stated the assassination of Slim, calling on the need for an expeditious investigation of this and other recent unresolved killings so that the perpetrators of these acts are brought to justice.
