On Thursday, the widow of prominent Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir, who was murdered on 2 June, said she is seeking a criminal investigation by authorities from France, where her husband also held nationality, complaining that the Lebanese inquiry has been incompetent. "I have made a formal complaint in France because Samir had French nationality and to benefit from the competence of French justice," said Gisele Khouri, a journalist with Al-Arabiya television. Khoury took advantage of a French law allowing her to file a complaint against "person or persons unknown". US Federal Bureau of Investigation and French police experts arrived in Beirut at the Lebanese government's request, after Kassir was killed on 2 June by a bomb placed in his car outside the couple's Beirut home. Sources close to the investigation told AFP the French and American experts had described the initial investigation as one of "total incompetence" after detecting "major flaws".
| Seems to be endemic to Lebanese criminal investigations, doesn't it? |
The sources close to the investigation said Lebanese investigators had been too quick to clear the crime scene. In particular, they were faulted for having removed the car too quickly, resulting in the bomb's detonator not being recovered. They were also criticised for not having performed an autopsy immediately, saying that made it more difficult to determine the type of explosive used and to trace infrared signals from the transmitter, also not found, that detonated the explosive. An autopsy was conducted after the insistence of the family, in the presence of the French experts, six days after the crime.