Amid somber silence, family and friends gathered at the Mar Takla Church in Hazmieh Tuesday to pay their condolences
to the family of murdered pro-Lebanese Forces (LF) engineer Ramzi Irani.
Irani’s body was transferred earlier in the day from the American University of Beirut Medical Center to the Baabda public hospital, where the body will remain until it is laid to rest at noon Wednesday.
According to a senior judicial source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the 36-year-old engineer had been dead for five to seven days when he was found in the trunk of his car in the busy Caracas neighborhood on Monday evening.
“But traces of dust on the
car indicated that it had been parked in an underground parking lot,” the source added.
The source said the cause of death appeared to be two bullets ­ one in the heart and the other in the victim’s left lung. No traces of torture were apparent, according to the source.
Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, filed charges against unknown assailants and transferred the case to Beirut Chief Investigating Magistrate Hatem Madi.
Lutfallah Abou Suleiman, the coroner in the case, refused to provide additional information before the end of the official investigation.
Pierre Zalloua, the doctor in charge of conducting the DNA testing, said the results would help match objects found on site with the suspects’ DNA.
Residents from the Caracas neighborhood, where the vehicle was found Monday, have been questioned by police.
However, according to an unidentified security source, the investigation has been “mishandled from the get-go.”
Once the car was discovered, an officer broke through the driver’s seat window, destroying vital evidence, the source said.
Delegations from the Lebanese University’s LF factions, which had been headed by Irani, continued to pay their respects throughout the day Tuesday.
But official appearances were limited to Metn MP Pierre Gemayel, Baalbek-Hermel MP Nader Sukkar and LF official Fouad Malek.
Strida Geagea, wife of imprisoned LF leader Samir Geagea, visited the family of the deceased late Monday.
Speaking to reporters at the church, Gemayel called the murder “a national catastrophe which caused all the slogans
of the past 10 years to fall in
an instant.”
He called Irani a “martyr of freedom,” adding that his slaying was the price he paid for believing in a “free sovereign and independent Lebanon,” adding that such blows to national security pushed young people to “stand in line for emigration.”
When asked if he believed the authorities had performed their duties in the investigations, Gemayel said the result spoke for itself.
Irani’s murder was strongly condemned by officials around the country, including the Beirut Order of Engineers and Architects, of which he was a member.
Following a mid-day meeting, headed by the order’s president, Sobhi Bsat, the group issued a statement describing the murder as “odious.”
“The order strongly condemns this odious murder, which has shaken the feelings of the Lebanese people and has brought back to their minds previous events that caused them significant suffering due to lack of security and stability,” according to the statement.
The group called on all order members in the country to
stop work for 24 hours to protest the murder.
It also announced that the order’s headquarters and offices nationwide would be closed on Wednesday.
Also, at the LU’s Branch Two, classes were suspended Tuesday and will remain so Wednesday for the funeral, while students hung white ribbons around campus.

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