Thousands mourn slain Lebanese MP Antoine Ghanem
Huge crowds turned out in Beirut today for the funeral of an anti-Syrian MP whose assassination this week could derail a tense parliamentary vote to chose a new Lebanese president.
Pallbearers threaded their way through a forest of Lebanese flags as they carried the coffins of Antoine Ghanem and his two bodyguards through the Furn el-Chebbak district, where the Phalange Party MP had his constituency.
“Ya habibi (my love), Ya habibi,” cried out his widow, Lola, as his coffin, draped with a Lebanese flag, left the Lebanese Canadian hospital where he was taken after a car bomb attack on Wednesday in which five people were killed and around 70 wounded.
The MP’s funeral was held amid heavy security at a Maronite Catholic church, while thousands mourned in the surrounding streets, festooned with white ribbons.
As loudspeakers blasted out patriotic songs, men and women waved party flags from their balconies while on the streets below women dressed in black waved handkerchiefs in a sign of grief.
Boy scouts carried wreaths, while party members marched past in khaki trousers and beige T-shirts, many holding banners with messages such as “We will not kneel.”
As the coffins arrived at the church, applause broke out and the church bells tolled as government MPs and Cabinet minsters joined Ghanem’s family for the service.
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