Elie Aoun, former Maronite MP from Chouf, died on Sunday at the age of 84. He was a former member of the Progressive Socialist Party’s parliamentary bloc and a lawyer who first entered Parliament in 2000 on the list of Druze leader Walid Joumblatt. He was re-elected again in 2005, and once more in 2009, on the same list.
Born in Damour in 1939, Elie Aoun was a staunch defender of an independent and sovereign Lebanon, He was one of the twenty or so MPs who refused to vote to extend, under pressure from the Syrian regime, the term of office of former president Emile Lahoud in November 2004. He then took part, alongside other sovereign figures, in the Cedar Revolution that ousted Syrian forces from Lebanon after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Elie Aoun was also one of the political figures who regularly called for the establishment of a National defense strategy to end the problem of Hezbollah’s weapons.
The funeral will take place on Monday at 3.30 PM in the church of Saint-Elie, Damour.
