Guila Fakhoury, the daughter of former South Lebanon Army member Amer Fakhoury, revealed that Lebanese officials previously encouraged him to return to Lebanon.
In an interview with MTV, Fakhoury said that her father, who died in the United States nearly 2 months ago, was “assassinated” by the Lebanese state.
She said that everyone encouraged him to return to Lebanon, affirming that he had “met with all officials,” and that “everyone stopped knowing who Amer Fakhoury was” after he was detained last year.
“My father was a political activist, and he held meetings with a number of political figures,” she said, adding that he used to advocate the return of South Lebanon’s Christians, “considered deportees,” to the country.
Moreover, she revealed that her father believed in “the strong era,” [Aoun’s era] and that he had met President Michel Aoun and FPM leader Gebran Bassil. However, “after his return [to Lebanon], everyone abandoned him,” Guila Fakhoury said.
In 2019, Amer Fakhoury was arrested after he landed in Beirut, for charges related to collaborating with Israel and torturing detainees in the Khiam prison during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.
He was released from prison a few months later and flown to the U.S., where he continued his treatment for late-stage cancer, which recently took his life.
It is believed that the Lebanese authorities dropped charges against Fakhoury and released him under pressure from the U.S.
