Anis al-Naqqash

Anis al-Naqqash
أنيس النقاش
Born	1951 (1951) Beirut, Lebanon
Died	22 February 2021(2021-02-22) (aged 69–70) Damascus, Syria
Known for	Effort in the attempted assassination of Shapour Bakhtiar and co-operation in OPEC siege

Anis al-Naqqash (Arabic: أنيس النقاش; 1951 – 22 February 2021), also known as Naccache, was a Lebanese political activist and revolutionary. He took part in the 1975 OPEC siege and later participated in a failed attempt to assassinate Shapour Bakhtiar, for which he spent several years in jail.

Biography

Al-Naqqash was born into a Sunni Beiruti family but later converted to Shia Islam after having pledged allegiance to Ruhollah Khomeini following the success of the Iranian Revolution in February 1979.

In 1968, he joined Fatah Movement and had several missions in Lebanon, Palestine and Europe, then he became among the first operatives during the 1978 South Lebanon conflict. In 1975, he was part of a six-person team led by Venezuelan guerrilla fighter Carlos the Jackal, which perpetrated the OPEC siege in Vienna, Austria.

In 1980, Anis al-Naqqash was convicted of being involved in a failed assassination attempt on the last Prime Minister of Iran under Pahlavi monarchy, Shapour Bakhtiar, in a court in Paris and was sentenced to life in prison. The assassination attempt resulted in death of a police officer and a civilian. Al-Naqqash was represented by Jacques Vergès. Al-Naqqash was freed on 27 July 1990, together with four accomplices, after being pardoned by President François Mitterrand.

Al-Naqqash spent the last two decades of his life running a think tank in Beirut. He was also a frequent commenter on Al-Manar and other pro-Iranian news outlets.

Death

He died from COVID-19 at a hospital in Damascus on 22 February 2021, at age 70, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Syria.