Franjieh used to hunt with Al Assads

Sulaiman Franjieh’s ties to the Al Assad family of Syria date to his childhood when his grandfather, the late President Sulaiman Franjieh, took him on trips to Damascus to visit his friend, the late President Hafez Assad. Franjieh used to hunt with Bashar Al Assad’s older brother, Basil, who died in a 1994 car crash.

He was orphaned in 1978 when a Christian militia attacked his family home in northern Lebanon, killing his father, mother and sister. Geagea has been accused of responsibility for that civil war time attack, though he has denied participating.

Franjieh, 50, featured prominently in the period of Syrian domination of Lebanon that followed the 1975-90 war, serving as a government minister several times. That era ended with the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon in 2005 following an international outcry at the Rafik Hariri assassination. Franjieh was serving as interior minister at the time.