Official Funeral Held for Karami in Tripoli

Hundreds of mourners, including politicians, bid farewell to former Prime Minister Omar Karami in his hometown in the northern city of Tripoli on Friday.

Karami was laid to rest in an official funeral after prayers, which were led by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan at the Mansouri Great mosque in the presence of Tripoli Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar.

Top officials, including Premier Tammam Salam, former Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Ministers Jebran Bassil, Elias Bou Saad, Rashid Derbas, and Wael Abou Faour, and MPs Fouad Saniora, Ali Bazzi, Samir al-Jisr and Mohammed Kabbara attended the funeral procession.

Before the funeral, his casket was moved from the American University of Beirut Medical Center to Tripoli as mourners gathered on the streets of towns and in main squares in the northern city to welcome the convoy.

Karami, 80, died on Thursday at the AUBMC where he was undergoing treatment from an undisclosed illness.

Flags were flown at half-mast across the country after Salam announced a three-day mourning period that started on Friday.

Karami served as prime minister for the first time between 1990 and 1992. He resigned after protests against rising living costs caused by the collapse of the Lebanese pound against the dollar.

He assumed the post again in 2004, but was forced to resign in 2005 following the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

Karami's elder brother Rashid was a long-serving prime minister until his assassination in 1987. And his father was one of the architects of Lebanon's independence in 1943.

Omar Karami is survived by his wife Mariam and four sons and daughters.

G.K.

D.A.