Souha Bechara
Souha Fawaz Bechara (Arabic : سهى فواز بشارة) (born 1967), commonly known as Souha Bechara or Soha Bechara, is a Lebanese woman who, at the age of twenty one, attempted to assassinate General Antoine Lahad of the South Lebanon Army. Lahad survived the assassination whereas Bechara was quickly arrested and held in the infamous Khiam prison, during which time she was repeatedly tortured. She was finally released in 1998, following an intense Lebanese, European, and even Israeli campaign in her favour. In 2003, her autobiography — Resistance: My Life for Lebanon — where she relates her life in Lebanon before and after the assassination, was published.
Early life
Souha Bechara was born in Deir Mimas and raised in a Eastern Orthodox family. Her father, Fawaz Bechara, is a member of the Lebanese Communist Party, which Souha Bechara herself also joined secretly in 1982, the year in which Israel invaded Lebanon and was active within the bodies of the party, its resistance front Jammoul and also in Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth.
The attempted assassination
Souha Bechara left college in 1987 and joined militant activities in Lebanon. She was given the task of assassinating Lahad. Consequently, she headed south, introduced herself to Lahad's family as an aerobics instructor to his wife Minerva. Gradually, she familiarised herself with the family's members and visited them continually. In the evening of the operation, 17 November 1988, Lahad's wife invited Bechara for tea. Bechara accepted the invitation and stayed until Lahad's arrival. As she was packing her belongings and leaving, Bechara quietly shot Lahad with a 5.45 mm revolver. He was shot twice in the chest, and Bechara threw the gun away before his body guards arrested her.
Lahad was rushed to hospital and Bechara was detained by the security guards in the house. He spent eight weeks in hospital, suffering serious health complications. His left arm was paralysed.
Detention
Bechara was immediately arrested by the Lahad militia, then handed over to the Israeli forces. Eventually, she was held without trial in the notorious Khiam prison for ten years, six of which in solitary confinement. She has been regularly electrified and otherwise brutally tortured, yet she refused to acquiesce with her jailers [citation needed].