Maronite Catholic Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai has issued a plea for “calm and moderation” after the kidnapping and murder of Pascal Sleiman, the head of the Christian Lebanese Forces.
Sleiman was seized by a small group of armed men on April 7, killed, and his body taken to the Syrian border. Lebanese officials said that the killing was orchestrated by a “Syrian criminal gang,” and most of those responsible had been arrested.
The crime threatened to inflame what Cardinal Rai described as a “delicate and tense political, security, and social situation” in Lebanon.