Outright Assassination

No other political trial in Lebanon and, indeed, the Arab World has been more controversial than the trial and execution of Antun Sa'adeh just before sunrise on July 8, 1949. The case is inescapably a tragedy. It was and still is the shortest and most secretive trial given to a political offender. Indicted for treason and for creating dissension, Antun Sa'adeh was tried on trumped-up charges based on falsified evidence and deliberate misapplication of the law. It was really nothing more than an