Choueifat Incident: Wahhab Calls Jumblat as Suspect Flees to Syria

Arab Tawhid Party chief and ex-minister Wiam Wahhab on Thursday held phone talks with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and offered condolences over the death of PSP member Alaa Abi Faraj during a clash with supporters of MP Talal Arslan.

Wahhab thanked Jumblat over his “responsible” stance regarding the incident, urging all parties to show responsibility.

In a tweet, Wahhab expressed his readiness to contact the authorities in Damascus in a bid to hand over an Arslan supporter accused of killing Abi Faraj who has fled to Syria.

“Some are saying that the criminal Amin al-Souqi has fled to Syria. If this is true, I will mediate with the Syrian state to extradite him and hand him over to the Lebanese state in order to prevent bloodshed, seeing as bloodshed is prohibited in Mount Lebanon,” Wahhab said.

He had lashed out at Arslan on Twitter, saying: “Mr. Arslan is reluctant to hand over the killer for very personal reasons that we understand, but people's blood is more important. If he has lost his imagined leadership in the elections, the response should not be through murder... Hand over al-Souqi and rid Choueifat of him.”

Marwan Abi Faraj of PSP's Choueifat department confirmed Thursday that the suspect has fled to Syria and that the victim will be laid to rest on Friday.

“Out of respect for the victim, and for all those who called us and condoled with us, out of respect for the spiritual leaders, the mayors and Walid Jumblat, it has been decided to bury the martyr Alaa Abi Faraj tomorrow at 1:00 pm,” Abi Faraj added.

“The party and the victim's family had given an ethical grace period, but we have received the answer,” the PSP official said, when asked about a 24-hour grace period that had been given to Arslan to “hand over the killer.”

He slammed Arslan's electoral alliance that won four parliamentary seats in the Chouf-Aley district as a “guarantee for thugs, drug addicts and strife seekers.”

Alaa Abi Faraj was killed when a shoulder-fired missile exploded near the PSP's headquarters in Choueifat during an elections-related clash with Arslan's supporters.