| http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=275852002
Phalangist’s murder may be part of pattern JAMES BURNET THE murder of a former Lebanese Phalangist that has baffled Brazilian police may have been part of a pattern of killings of former Christian figures linked to the massacre of Palestinian refugees in 1982, it emerged yesterday. Michael Nassar, 39, was the third former Lebanese Christian militia to die in unexplained circumstances in the past two months. Elie Hobeika, the Phalangist leader, was murdered in a car bombing in Beirut in January. Jean Ghanem, another Hobeika aide, was killed when his car crashed into a tree on New Year’s Day. Mr Nassar was shot dead in São Paulo with his wife Marie Noel Mimassi, 31, by a masked gunman at a petrol station while waiting for a flat tyre to be repaired. The couple, who were on their way way to dinner with friends, had phoned a friend on his mobile to say that his car had suffered a blow-out and he feared he was being followed by another car. Mr Nassar was still talking on the mobile when the gunman drew up and shot him in the head. Mr Nassar was struck down by another six bullets before his wife was shot with four, Folha de São Paulo newspaper quoted a police spokeswoman as saying. The gunman used a 7.65mm calibre pistol equipped with a silencer. Brazilian police say they have found no motive for the double murder, but have ruled out robbery as a reason. Mr Nassar’s fortune is estimated at over $100 million. He is known to be a major investor in Solidere - a company behind the rebuilding of central Beirut - owning shares worth $25 million. Relatives said the couple are to be buried in Lebanon. The victims’ daughters, Paloma, six, and Michaela, three, are to be sent back to Lebanon to live with their grandparents. Grace Nassar, Michael’s sister-in-law, said in Beirut that she had little faith that the Brazilian authorities would carry out a thorugh investigation of ths murders. "They don’t care. I don’t think we will ever know who did it," she said. Asked whether the family suspected anyone, Ms Nassar added: "We don’t have a clue." Lebanese Forces told Beirut’s Daily Star that Mr Nassar may have been assassinated by former members of the disbanded party who were close to its former chief, Samir Geagea. Geagea, who is serving four life sentences for masterminding the bombing of a church, jailed Mr Nassar for several months in 1991, accusing him of embezzling the militia in a weapons transaction in which Christian militia weapons were sold to Croatia during the Balkans war. However, Mr Nassars’s links with Hobeika have raised speculation that he may have been assassinated by an Israeli agent. Hobeika was a former Lebanese cabinet minister who as Christian militia leader in 1982 oversaw the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians at Sabra and Shatila. Hobeika’s car bomb assassination last month focused scrutiny on the past of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, who as defence minister at the time of the massacre co-ordinated closely with Hobeika’s Christian fighters in an alliance against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. A Belgian court has postponed a decision over whether to indict Mr Sharon for his alleged role in the massacre. Shortly before his death Hobeika said he was prepared to testify against him. |
