The assassination of prominent intellectual anti-Hezbollah activist Lokman Slim triggered a major public reaction, notably on social media with countless people, including Slim’s wife, pointing the finger at Hezbollah, which party members had been threatening him.
Journalist and activist Dima Sadek was among those who accused Hezbollah, taking it further to make her claim during an episode of her MTV show Hakki Sadek. She openly and directly accused Hezbollah of the assassination with firm statements.
Now, she and the TV station are being sued by lawyer Ghassan Al-Mawla, who submitted a claim to the Public Prosecution Office at the Cassation Court.
Al-Mawla, who had previously filed a lawsuit against Shia cleric Sayyed Ali El-Amine, known for publicly disagreeing with Hezbollah, accuses Dima Sadek in particular of alleged “scheming, sedition, libel and slander, criminal defamation, instigation of sectarian strife, and incitement of conflict between sects.”
The esteemed Shia cleric Sayyed Ali El-Amine was also accused back then of “the crime of stirring sectarian sentiments and inciting conflict between sects.”
It is worth noting that, in regards to the accusations related to sectarianism, all involved in the current MTV case, as in the case of El-Amine back in June 2020, are from the same Shia sect. Hezbollah, in fact, does not represent all the Lebanese Shia community.
Following the lawsuit, Dima Sadek introduced her show on Monday by firmly reiterating that her previous accusation of Hezbollah is based on her own personal convictions and analysis, and her own feelings and thoughts, and the MTV had nothing to do about it.
She firmly emphasized what the chairman of MTV had previously declared when blamed by Lebanon’s Audiovisual Council President, Abdel Hadi Mahfouz: The MTV and its management were unaware of the episode’s content before it was aired.
Mahfouz had rejected the “condemnation of Hezbollah for murder, without any evidence” by Sadek in her episode.
The controversial episode of Hakki Sadek was later taken down and never uploaded on the MTV Website but is still circulating on social media.
It is worth noting that journalist Dima Sadek has been a constant target of slander, libel, threats, and defamation for a long time now by Hezbollah supporters for her freedom of opinion and free press reporting.
