New Hampshire family recounts father’s detainment, torture in new book

The family of Amer Fakhoury has spent the past four years pursuing justice and seeking accountability for his death after he passed away from stage 4 cancer in 2020, months after he was freed from prison in Lebanon. 

Now, his four daughters are giving a first-hand account of his detainment and the harrowing rescue operation to bring him back home to the United States in a soon-to-be-released book, “Silenced in Beirut: American Businessman Amer Fakhour’s Six-Month Ordeal as a Hostage In Lebanon.”

Guila and Zoya Fakhoury spoke with Fox News Digital about the book ahead of its release on Sept. 12, the fifth-year anniversary of their father’s detainment in Beirut by the General Directorate of General Security, Lebanon’s government intelligence agency.

“We wanted this book to just capture the injustice he faced, who was involved in his illegal detention, who are the big players [and] what the U.S. government did to bring him back home,” said Zoya.

“This story is very significant, because you actually get to see firsthand what Hezbollah is doing in Lebanon and what it’s doing to its people and how America is a part of that as well.”

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Fakhoury returned to his native Lebanon with his wife, Micheline, for the first time in nearly 20 years to see family but was detained soon after his arrival amid allegations from a Hezbollah-backed newspaper that he was the “Butcher of Khiam,” who tortured prisoners at the now defunct prison in the 1990s.

Hezbollah members salute and raise the group’s yellow flags during the funeral of fallen fighters who were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicles, in Shehabiya in south Lebanon on April 17. (AFP via Getty Images)

The Fakhoury family vehemently denied the claims, saying their father only worked as a logistics officer with the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a Christian-dominated, Israeli-backed militia that was disbanded after Israel withdrew from the country in 2000.

Fakhoury fled Lebanon after receiving threats from Hezbollah after the SLA collapsed, staying in Nahariya, a seaside city in Israel close to the Lebanese border, for a few months before immigrating to the United States.

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His family says the Lebanese government published a list in 2016 indicating that Fakhoury had no outstanding charges prior to his 2019 detainment, and a 2018 amnesty placed their father on a list of SLA members not associated with running Khiam prison.

While Fakhoury was detained in Beirut, he was forced to sign a paper saying he held Israeli citizenship and was an Israeli spy, both baseless accusations, according to his family.

Amer Fakhoury immigrated to the United States in the early 2000s after fleeing Lebanon.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who worked closely with the family, said in a 2020 press release that a Lebanese military court had charged Fakhoury with “unsubstantiated crimes that carry a punishment of death without producing any material evidence to back these allegations.”

The Dover, N.H., restaurant owner was beaten, tortured and forced to stay in unsanitary conditions with no sunlight or toilet, according to his family. They believe he acquired lymphoma from the Epstein-Barr virus, which he likely obtained from poor prison conditions.

“We really wanted to honor [Amer’s] legacy and to tell the world about this amazing father, great husband, and what happened to him was not fair. And someone needs to be held accountable,” said Guila.

“We lost our father, my kids cannot see their granddad, my mom, you know, he was her soulmate, 37 years of marriage. So, we lost a great man, and to this day, we don’t have accountability. So through this book, we want everyone to read his story, read about him, read about what happened to him.”

The Fakhoury family fled Lebanon as Hezbollah took over. They detail the detainment of their father, Amer, while on a family vacation in his native country in 2019. ((Fox News Digital/ Fakhoury Family))

Guila added that her father advocated for democracy in Lebanon, spoke out against Hezbollah and was active in the Republican Party.

“He was an American citizen. He was an advocate. He was in the Republican Party. He had pictures on his Facebook, [he was] close to politics in America. . . .  I think this is the reason why they illegally detained him and put all these charges on him, knowing that none of it is true,” she told Fox News Digital.

“I do think, touching on his nervousness, at the end of the day, as much reassurance you can get from a government, I think deep down, he knew that Hezbollah was still in Lebanon, and I think that was his fear because he always. . . . You hear stories of Hezbollah being involved in kidnap cases. So, I think that was always in the back of his mind,” said Zoya.

The New York Times reported that Trump administration officials believed that Fakhoury’s arrest was directed by Hezbollah.

Former President Trump and his administration helped secure the release of New Hampshire businessman Amer Fakhoury. The two met several years before that at a Trump campaign event in the New Hampshire area.  (Fakhoury Family)

Fakhoury was evacuated from the rooftop of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon on a U.S. Air Force V-22 Osprey after Senator Shaheen and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, proposed bipartisan sanctions against Lebanese officials involved in the detention of U.S. citizens. 

Seven months after his initial detainment and 75 pounds lighter, Fakhoury returned home and was treated at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where he passed away five months later. 

“What we’re still lacking [from] our U.S. government is accountability. So, unfortunately, it’s been four years that we’ve [been] trying to hold accountable Lebanese officials and the Lebanese government for the killing of an American citizen,” Guila told Fox News Digital.

Guila (right) and Zoya (left) Fakhoury open up about the death and detainment of their father, Amer.

“It’s been a very difficult journey. I think we’re blessed to have our family, honestly, because that’s where we both — we all get energy from each other. When one of us is feeling down, we feed off one another’s energy. And I think that’s what kept us going strong, because we didn’t really have a mourning period, to be honest with you, the minute my father died, we wanted to get to work, because we know the magnitude of his case,” said Zoya. “We know what he endured and just the injustice he faced.”

The Fakhourys started the Amer Fakhoury Foundation in honor of the late patriarch to advocate for the families of other detained Americans, seek accountability from foreign governments involved in the detention of U.S. citizens and pursue policy changes.

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The book is available on the foundation’s website.