Shibli al-Aysami

Shiblī Yousef Hamad al-Aysamī , alternatively also Shibli-L-Aʾysami, al-Ayasami, al-Ayssami or al-ʿAisamī, (5 February 1925 – June 4, 2011) was a Syrian politician and Arab nationalist figure. He was born to a Druze family in al-Suwayda, Syria. He was kidnapped by unknown persons in Aley, Lebanon and is presumed to be dead.

Political career

Syria He was born to a Syrian Druze family. In 1947, together with Michel Aflaq, he became a founding member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and from 1963 to 1964 he held different ministerial posts in the Syrian government. In 1964 he was elected as General Secretary of the Syrian Regional Command of the Ba'ath Party and in 1965 he became Vice President of Syria under Amin al-Hafiz.

Iraq

Following the 1966 Syrian coup d'état which resulted in President al-Hafiz being overthrown and the creation of the Syrian-Iraqi rift, al-Aysami, then Vice President of Syria, fled to Iraq. In 1974 the Iraqi Branch of the Ba'ath Party installed a rival National Command of the Ba'ath Party with Michel Aflaq as General Secretary and al-Aysami as his deputy (until 1979).

In 1982, al-Hafiz and al-Aysami, together with Islamist, nationalist and leftist opposition groups founded the Iraqi-backed National Alliance for the Liberation of Syria, but in 1992 al-Aysami retired from political life. He remained in Iraq until the 2003 invasion of Iraq and fled to Egypt, then the United States and Lebanon thereafter.

Kidnapping

On 18 May 2011, Al-Aysami, a legal permanent resident of the United States, departed the country and arrived in Lebanon the following day. On 24 May, he went for a walk near his daughter's residence in Aley, where witnesses later reported that he was forced into one of several black SUVs seen in the area. An extensive search was conducted by family members, local residents, and Lebanese authorities, including hospital checks and the use of sniffer dogs, but his whereabouts remain unknown.

His family suspected he was kidnapped and transferred to Syria, accusing the government of Bashar al-Assad of responsibility. Syrian authorities denied involvement and instead accused Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. Human Rights Watch and Lebanese officials criticised the slow pace and lack of progress in the investigation, citing systemic failures to pursue crimes believed to be politically motivated.

According to the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (LIFE), al-Aysami died around 4 June 2011, while in detention at a Syrian Air Force Intelligence prison in the Mezzeh district of Damascus.

Personal life He was the great-uncle of Tareck El Aissami, later Vice President of Venezuela.