Nizar Kartawi
First Name:
Nizar
Last Name:
Kartawi
Gender:
Male
Place of Birth:
Zahriyeh
Date of Birth:
11/10/1964
Marital Status:
Single
Have Children:
No
Occupation:
Mechanic
Date of Disappearance:
1/1/1983
Age at the time of Disappearance:
19
Location of the Disappearance:
Bahsas Koura intersection, Tripoli, Lebanon
Last Seen Date:
5/1984
Last Seen Location:
The Cave Prison in Fih, Koura, Lebanon
Description of the missing person
Nizar was the eldest and sole provider of a family consisting of his mother, a brother and five younger sisters. After the death of his father at an early age, Nizar left school in order to help his mother and family and became an apprentice at a mechanic shop belonging to his uncle’s friend. After learning the essentials from his uncle’s friend, he decided that it is time to open his own shop near Ghannoum School in Zahriyeh in order to provide better for his family. Nizar had a strong but loving personality. He was known in the family for being a person who loves life. He enjoyed listening to music and loved to go out dancing with his friends. He admired the music of the ABBA’s and the BeeGees and always danced to them. He dressed fashionably and used to smoke cigarettes. He was very protective of his family and always looked after them. Nizar wanted to travel; he once requested a passport without having a destination to go to. His favorite food was Kafta and he adored Arabian sweets. He loved his siblings very much; He was a father figure to them and was very loved and admired by them.
Circumstances of the Disappearance
Nizar’s friend Khaled, who had recently come back from Germany and who was known to have ties with a certain militia that he had recently separated from, passed by Nizar’s shop and asked him if he could fix his car. Nizar agreed and said that the car needed some extra accessorial parts, which Nizar didn’t have at his shop. Therefore, they decided to go to Koura in order to buy them. Saturday January 1, 1983, Nizar Al Kartawi wearing a green jeans suit and his favorite American boots drove with Khaled to Koura in order to buy the extra needed parts. The two men did not return home that day and no one knows exactly what happened on that day but some witnesses state that they saw the two men arguing with certain armed men at a checkpoint in the Bahsas, Koura area leading to the conclusion that they had been kidnapped at that checkpoint.