BEIRUT: A prominent Lebanese activist and intellectual known for his opposition to the Shia movement Hezbollah was found shot dead in his car in the country's south on Thursday, a security official said. The murder, exactly six months after a cataclysmic explosion at Beirut port, drew immediate condemnation from abroad and tributes from his many friends.

Lokman Slim, 58, had long been a leading secular voice in the Shia community and was routinely criticised, and often threatened, over his anti-Hezbollah stance.

"He was found dead in his car," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that Slim was shot five times in the head and once in the back.

Preliminary information suggests he was killed between 2:00 am and 3:00 am (0000 GMT and 0100 GMT), several hours after setting off in his car the previous evening.

Without naming Hezbollah, Slim's sister had told AFP before his death was even confirmed that his disappearance was inevitably linked to his opinions.

As Slim's relatives gathered in the family house and friends trickled in to extend their condolences, a teary Rasha al-Ameer remembered her brother with admiration.

"I always used to ask him: 'Lokman, are you not afraid to speak your mind so freely in our countries, that are closed like prisons?," she said.

"He used to tell me he was not afraid of death," she said. "They have killed an exceptional human being."