BEIRUT, 25 November 2005 — Lebanese television journalist May Chidiac who was mutilated in an assassination bid in September made her first public appearance on Wednesday and said she was determined to go back to work.
“They thought I would never work again but I will go back after I have an operation to get an artificial hand and leg,” Chidiac said on the private LBC television for which she works.
Known for her open criticism of Syria, the 40-year-old journalist — dubbed a “living martyr of freedom of speech” in the Lebanese media — was seriously wounded on Sept. 25 when a car exploded in her car north of Beirut.
She had a leg and hand amputated and has undergone some 20 operations since the attack which drew widespread international condemnation. The bombing went unclaimed and the perpetrators have not been arrested.
Lebanon was plagued by a series of attacks between October 2004 and September 2005, notably the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri in a massive Feb. 14 bomb blast which also claimed 20 other lives.
