Frances ambassador to Lebanon, Denis Pietton, said that he met with the seven Estonians who were freed Thursday following a kidnap ordeal of almost four month but did not ask them questions about their abduction.
“I did not ask them who kidnapped them,” he told Ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Friday. According to the French envoy, the investigation into the case is to be left to the Lebanese judiciary.
Pietton said that he was satisfied with checking on their health and making sure they were comfortable at the French Embassy in Beirut, where the men were taken after their release.
He denied reports that France played a big role in the tourists’ release, saying his country’s role “was diplomatic and logistical.”
“The French delegation did not negotiate with anyone, and everything it did was within the framework of diplomatic coordination because Estonia does not have an embassy in Lebanon,” he told the daily.
The French ambassador also said that he does not know whether the abductors were paid ransom.
The seven men, in their 30s and early 40s, were freed on Thursday morning after a kidnap ordeal of almost four months. They were abducted at gunpoint on March 23 while on a cycling holiday in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, after arriving from neighboring Syria.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet arrived in Beirut on Thursday evening to accompany the released tourists home.
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