Anis al-Naqqash ( ar, أنيس النقاش; 1951 – 22 February 2021), also known as Naccache, was a Lebanese political activist and revolutionary. He was also known for being a Lebanese guerrilla fighter.

Biography

Al-Naqqash was born into a Sunni Beiruti family but later converted to

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...

Islam after having pledged allegiance to Ruhollah Khomeini following the success of the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

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 The 1978 South Lebanon conflict (codenamed Operation Litani by Israel) began after Israel invaded southern Lebanon up to the Litani River in March 1978, in response to the Coastal Road massacre near Tel Aviv by Lebanon-based Palestinian ...

. 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 en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. In 1980, Anis al-Naqqash was accused of being involved in a failed assassination attempt on the last Prime Minister of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

under Pahlavi monarchy, Shapour Bakhtiar, in a court in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and was sentenced to life in prison. The assassination attempt resulted in death of a police officer and a civilian. Al-Naqqash was freed on 27 July 1990, together with four accomplices, after being pardoned by President François Mitterrand.

Death

He died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

at a hospital in Damascus on 22 February 2021, aged 70, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Syria.

References

1951 births 2021 deaths People from Beirut Converts to Shia Islam from Sunni Islam Lebanese people imprisoned abroad Lebanese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by France Recipients of French presidential pardons Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Syria {{Lebanon-bio-stub Guerrillas Political activists