The list of martyrs in Lebanon continues to grow while we await the verdict of the murder that started it all, on February 14, 2005.

Tueni and three others were killed by a 200 kg explosive in a nearly identical manner to the seemingly endless list of senseless murders. Tueni spent most of August in France along with many other prominent Lebanese leaders believed to be in danger. Amid growing fear over the existence of a Syrian hit-list, he confessed in an interview, "my name is on top of this list."

While his tenure as a parliament member may be recent, Gibran Tueni has been a life-long defender of Lebanon's rights in the face of occupation by the Syrian regime. He has been one of Syria's harshest critics in Lebanon, even during the ruthless regime of Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current president in Syria.

Following the death of fellow an-Nahar journalist Samir Kassir on June 2, 2005, Tueni was one of the first people to arrive at the murder scene, laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Syrian regime.

"Bashar Assad should not be allowed to have a single intelligence operative lingering in Lebanon," said Tueni, who was elected on the previous Sunday as part of Saad Hariri's Future Movement in Beirut.

"The Syrian regime is responsible from head to toe for this horrific terrorist crime. Lebanon's opposition should promptly close ranks anew to have every Syrian intelligence cell left behind in Lebanon ruthlessly smashed," Tueni said.

In a rather predictable fashion, the Syrian Information Ministry passed the blame, claiming the assassination of the prominent anti-Syrian was in fact part of an effort to damage their reputation. Given the repeated shenanigans we have witnessed from the Syrian regime since the murder of Hariri on February 14, they seem to be doing a great job damaging their own reputation.

In his recent editorial, titled "When Will the Syrian Regime Come to Its Senses?", Tueni blasts the regime, stating "Throughout the Syrian tutelage over Lebanon, Damascus has always used the carrot and stick policy: sweet talk on the one hand and car bombs and assassinations on the other."

Tueni's editorial continues:

The Lebanese good-heartedness, and some say their fear at a certain period, reduced them to silence. However, if the Lebanese people testify before the international investigation committee about all the crimes Syria perpetrated in Lebanon, the trial of the Syrian high-ranking officials would turn into a new "Nuremberg" where the plaintiffs would be the descendants of Kamal Jumblat, Bachir El Jemayel, Mufti Hasan Khaled, Rene Mouawad, Mohammad Choukeir, Nazem Al Kadiri, Salim Al Laouzi, Rafik Hariri, Bassel Fleihan and their friends as well as the descendants of Samir Kassir, Georges Hawi and all the victims of the (Syrian) regime of tutelage.

The time has come to overcome our fear and abandon our good-heartedness so that we would be able to face the lies of the Syrian security apparatus.

Tueni wrote about the discovery of mass graves just four days ago, expressing his disgust at the Syrian regime and their concerted efforts to disrupt the investigation into the recent string of assassinations:

Syria would be satisfied with the international investigation committee in only one case: when the commissioner Detlev Mehlis would conclude that Premier Hariri, Bassel Fleihan and their friends as well as Samir Kassir and Georges Hawi "committed suicide" exactly like Ghazi Kanaan, and that Marwan Hamade and May Chidiac tried to put an end to their lives but did not succeed.

What a peace force that kidnaps, imprisons, tortures, kills and throw innocent victims in mass graves! Then they accuse the Lebanese people of ingratitude!

The Syrian regime is the sole responsible of Anjar's mass graves. It is a crime against humanity that urges an immediate international action, a thorough investigation and an international trial, independently from the Hariri's assassination and the results of the investigation.

Killing people and burying them in mass graves are illegitimate acts even in the most terrible wars... and the perpetrators of such crimes would meet the same fate as dictators like Adolf Hitler, Ceausescu, Milosevic, Saddam Hussein or the tribal leaders in Rwanda.

I hope that we can fulfill Tueni's dream of an independent, peaceful and prosperous Lebanon, and that this latest atrocity will serve as a flame to re-ignite the Cedar Revolution that united the Lebanese for the first time in decades.

May he rest in peace.

Red Cross workers cover the body of a victim and a firefighter extinguishes a car set ablaze

Lebanese Red Cross workers cover the mutilated body of a victim after an explosion targeted the convoy of anti-Syrian journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueni

Siham Tueni, the widow of the assassinated anti-Syrian journalist, in tears

Siham Tueni, the widow of the assassinated anti-Syrian journalist, in tears

Anti-Syrian Gibran Tueni holds a pen symbol of the freedom of the press during an hour of silence to mourn the death of Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir

Georges Haddad, a friend of the Tueni family reacts at the site of the explosion

Lebanese journalist Rima Maktabi reacts to the death of her colleague

In this picture dated June 4 2005, Lebanese MP Gibran Tueni is carrying the coffin of murdered columnist Samir Kassir

Lebanese students shout anti-Syrian slogans during a protest against the killing of anti-Syrian journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueni

A student wears a Lebanese flag bandana as she holds a portrait of killed anti-Syrian journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueni.

A bodyguard of Gibran Tueni was among those hurt.

Lebanese mourners carry the coffin of slain Gebran Tueni outside a hospital in Beirut

A journalist puts a rose on the desk of slain Lebanese lawmaker and journalist Gebran Tueini, by the scarf bearing the colors of the Lebanese national flag worn by Tueini during the March 14th Million Cedar March

The pictures are courtesy of AP, Reuters and