Outright Assassination: The Trial and Execution of Antun Sa'adeh, 1949

by Adel Beshara

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 open-and-shut exercise in accusation and punishment - a trial more appropriate to the cruel days of the Middle Ages than the supposedly civilized world of the 20th century. Since the trial was held, many complex issues have been raised, many more crucial than the actual fate of the accused: Why the secrecy and haste? Was it a fair trial? Was the offense political and, if so, why did the Lebanese State refuse to treat it as such? What did the Khoury regime hope to achieve from the trial? Did the penalty fit the crime? This book answers these and many more questions that, until now, have received cursory treatment as part of a general history rather than the thorough analysis they deserve.

332 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2010

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable achievement of research and analysis. The trial and execution of Antun Sa’adeh in Beirut in 1949 is a very murky affair warranting only the briefest of mentions in general histories of modern Lebanon, and here Beshara marshals the sources from disparate locations be they newspaper accounts in Lebanon and elsewhere, published memoirs, and personal interviews and attempts to give a fuller picture of the events leading upto the trial and execution of Sa’adeh and subsequent events. He covers the events from a regional perspective, [Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi being the main players at this time] and from an international perspective where appropriate. In addition, Beshara has had to become something of an expert in Lebanese Law, both Criminal and Military, to make sense of the events which is doubtless a Herculean effort in of itself which leads me onto a few noticeable flaws within this otherwise beautiful mosaic.

Because of the legal processes that led to the downfall of Sa’adeh the text can be repetitive in parts which for a general reader, such as myself, can be tiresome after a while. However this method is invaluable for a serious scholar of the period or of law in general- reenforcing knowledge, and the legal basis for making decisions and judgements, or in Sa’adeh’s case how to manipulate and abuse existing law to reach a predetermined conclusion.

There are a few confusing details that leaped out at me, such as was Sa’adeh wearing a white suit or a light brown one during the whole process? When exactly did Juliet al-Mir die was in 1968 as attested on pg. 278 or 1969 as stated on pg. 282.

Beshara’s obvious sympathy personally for his subject and the Party occasionally creeps out, most noticeably when describing the activities of Sa’adeh’s wife during the trial and after the execution where the descriptions border on simpering at best, devotional at worst. This, like the repetitive legal explanations, and misreported details over suit colours and death dates are small, disabling elements that hold no bearing on Beshara’s overall argument.

Overall it is a cracking read, on a much misunderstood, marginalised and maligned individual from recent Lebanese History and in spite of a few obvious flaws, any student of the period ought to be extremely grateful for this attempt, using limited sources, to place these events in their proper context and explain them coherently.