LBCI Exclusive: More details on Mohammad Sarour’s assassination

Report by Lara El Hachem, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi 

The assassination case of Mohammad Sarour, a former employee of the Hezbollah-affiliated Qard al-Hasan Association, has been veiled in security and judicial secrecy since 2019 when he was added to the US sanctions list. 

He was accused of transferring funds from Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) to Hamas in Gaza through Hezbollah.

However, new information obtained by LBCI suggests that Sarour received a call on Monday, two days before his disappearance, to deliver a remittance to a woman Z.J. in Beit Meri. Accompanied by his nephew, he arrived at the villa and handed over the amount from the villa's window. 

The woman informed him that another remittance would arrive in a week, but he received a call on Wednesday about its arrival. He went alone to deliver it, but this time he was lured inside the villa and killed.

Security analysts believe that Mohammad Sarour was lured by someone outside Lebanon, trusted by him, who deceived him into delivering money to this woman, while he was actually being set up.

The perpetrators of the crime likely left Lebanese territory immediately after its execution using foreign passports.

According to two forensic reports, as well as criminal evidence, Sarour was shot seven times with a pistol, and bruises and rope marks were found on his body, suggesting that he may have been subjected to physical pressure and interrogation to disclose information about the network he was communicating with abroad for money transfers.

The planning for Sarour's assassination appears to have taken months and been executed with high precision. Sources indicate that the villa was rented for one year, and the elderly owner was tempted with $48,000 cash as rent payment.

Furthermore, the line used by the woman to contact Sarour was new and had only been used to contact him, complicating matters further for the Intelligence Branch, which operates with absolute secrecy.