An unauthenticated video uploaded to YouTube late Tuesday shows seven Estonians kidnapped last month in eastern Lebanon begging Lebanese, Saudi, Jordanian and French leaders to help them return home.
Local website Lebanon Files received a tip Wednesday of the video uploaded by a user named thekidnaper2011.
The video shows seven clean-shaved men, who appeared unharmed, in sports gear begging for help by turn.
"We are turning to you, [outgoing] Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the King of Saudi Arabia King Abdullah [bin Abdel Aziz], the King of Jordan King Abdullah, the President of France Mr. [Nicolas] Sarkozy, please do anything to help us to get back home," said one of the seven.
"This is a really difficult situation," said another. "Please do anything, do everything, what it takes to get us home."
The video comes one day after Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet wrapped up a trip to Lebanon during which he said there were no new leads on the fate of the seven Estonian cyclists, who were abducted on March 23.
The group went missing in the eastern Bekaa Valley after entering Lebanon from Syria. The motive for their abduction remains unclear.
Eleven Lebanese were charged last week with the kidnapping.
A previously unheard of group, Haraket Al-Nahda Wal-Islah (Movement for Renewal and Reform), has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and demanded an unspecified ransom to free the seven Estonians.
The claim was made in an email to Lebanon Files but has not been authenticated by security officials.
Authorities have said the Estonians may have been moved across the porous border to Syria.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon
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