Now Lebanon - Rifi says Bekaa detainees not linked to Estonians’ kidnapping, September 23, 2011

Internal Security Forces (ISF) General Director Ashraf Rifi said in an interview published on Friday that the four people arrested on Wednesday in the Bekaa are not accused of being linked to the kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists earlier in the year.Rifi told Al-Jumhuriya newspaper that “the four people are eyewitnesses who gave information to the ISF on the abduction.”He also said that “one of them is the owner of the apartment that was used for the ambush against the ISF members in eastern Bekaa.”Rifi added that “some of the four people knew about the gang’s movements in the recent days,” adding that, “two of them were released on Thursday morning and the other two will be released on Friday.”The ISF Information Branch arrested in the Bekaa on Wednesday four people who might be linked to the kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists earlier in the year, the National News Agency reported.Two men suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of seven Estonians in Lebanon were killed on Monday night in a shootout with police in the Bekaa.

Seven kidnapped Estonians were freed in Lebanon in July 14, almost four months after being abducted by armed men as they entered the country on a bicycle tour from neighboring Syria.