Souha Bechara

Soha Bechara (; born 15 June 1967) is a Lebanese national who became known for her 1988 unsuccessful attempted assassination of former Lebanese Army Major General Antoine Lahad, the leader of the South Lebanon Army (SLA). After dropping out of school, she joined the armed wing of the Soviet-financed and PLO-supported Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) under the Lebanese National Resistance Front (Jammoul) military coalition. She then duped Lahad's wife into befriending her, posing as an aerobics instructor, so as to get close enough to kill her husband.

On November 17, 1988, Bechara shot Lahad twice, inflicting severe internal trauma that resulted in the permanent paralysis of his left arm. She was immediately arrested and subsequently detained for ten years at the SLA-administered Khiam Detention Center in Lebanon without formal criminal charges or a trial. Following a campaign by various groups, she was released in September 1998.

Early life Bechara was born in Deir Mimas, Lebanon, to a Greek Orthodox Christian family. Her father was an active member of the Lebanese Communist Party, which Bechara herself also joined secretly in 1982. During the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, she was active in various leftist political and militant movements, including the armed umbrella coalition of the Jammoul and the Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth.

Failed assassination attempt Bechara dropped out of college in 1986. She then joined the armed wing of the Soviet-financed and PLO-supported Lebanese Communist Party (LCP). The LCP operated under the umbrella military coalition of the leftist PLO-aligned Lebanese National Resistance Front (Jammoul).

She was given the task of assassinating Antoine Lahad, a former Lebanese Army Major General. He was the leader of the South Lebanon Army, which frequently engaged in armed clashes with the PLO.

On the evening of 17 November 1988, Lahad's wife invited Bechara for tea. Lahad's guards then burst into the room, disarmed Bechara, and arrested her. His left arm was permanently paralyzed.

Bechara was taken to Israel briefly, where she was interrogated. She was then returned to southern Lebanon, where the Southern Lebanese Army confined her at the SLA-administered Khiam Detention Center for ten years, without formal criminal charges or a judicial trial. Bechara was released on September 3, 1998, following an intense Lebanese and European campaign. This culminated in July 2023 when Greek border authorities at the Athens International Airport briefly detained Bechara while she was in transit to Switzerland, where she holds citizenship, and instead deported her back to Lebanon.

Writing In 2000, she published her autobiography, Résistante, relating her early life and her years in jail, with English and Arabic translations following in 2003. In 2011, Bechara published another autobiography, whose Arabic title translates as I Dream of a Cell of Cherries. Her co-author, Cosette Elias Ibrahim, is a Lebanese freelance journalist who was detained in the Khiam prison for nine months.

Parts of Bechara's story were used in Wajdi Mouawad's 2003 play Incendies, which Denis Villeneuve adapted to the screen in his 2010 film of the same title.