Background and career
Soha Bechara (Arabic: سهى بشارة, romanized: Sohā Beshāra; 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.
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