BEIRUT: Residents of the mountain town of Aley staged a demonstration over the weekend, demanding that authorities uncover the fate of a Syrian opposition figure who disappeared last month.
Shibli al-Aisamy, 86, a defector from Syria’s ruling Baath Party, went missing from the town of Aley in late May after leaving his daughter’s house. Security sources said that Aisamy is being held by Syrian authorities.
Among those marching in Aley on Saturday evening were caretaker Minister for the Displaced and Aley MP Akram Shehayeb; representatives of Aley MP Talal Arslan and Tawheed Movement leader Wiam Wahhab; Aley Mayor Wajdi Mrad; Progressive Socialist Party official Rami Rayyes; and a number of local figures.Demonstrators carried posters and banners condemning the kidnapping and calling for Aisamy’s release.
Raja Aisamy Sharafeddine, Aisamy’s daughter, said that her father “was born poor, worked for half a century in politics … and ended his political career in 1992, also poor.”
Aisamy was one of the founders of the Baath Party in 1943 and held many ministerial positions between 1962 and 1966, when he was appointed one of former Syrian President Amine al-Hafez’s deputies.
Aisamy has written 17 books about the Arab nation and unity, and his daughter said that he had made sacrifices throughout his life for the sake of Arabism and Arab unity.
“Shibli al-Aisamy was unjustly kidnapped from Aley 18 days ago in broad daylight, five days after he arrived in Lebanon,” Raja said.
“I don’t know what language to use when addressing his kidnappers. I don’t know any language but of right and love,” Raja said, adding, “Shibli al-Aisamy did not raise us in the language of evil and criminality.”
Aisamy’s daughter called for the “safe return” of her father. “We won’t accept procrastination and negligence; this is a humanitarian case.”
She said that Aisamy’s kidnappers had made a mistake “because he abandoned politics in 1992.” Raja called on Syrian and Lebanese authorities to work “quickly and seriously to unveil his fate, identify the kidnappers and guarantee his safe return.”
Shehayeb voiced his confidence in the Lebanese security authorities handling the matter. “We will work at all political levels in the country to uncover the truth,” he said.
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