BEIRUT: The head of the Internal Security Forces released to the media a detailed report that implicates the Syrian Embassy and its ISF personnel in the kidnappings of Syrian opposition figures, days after the Syrian ambassador to Lebanon demanded evidence be produced over the allegations.The report, released by Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, was referred by the ISF to judicial authorities in February.
It includes statements from witnesses who have provided solid evidence that three brothers from the Jasem family were kidnapped outside Baabda Serail on Feb. 24 by a four-man group led by Lt. Salah Ali al-Hajj, the head of the Syrian Embassy guard unit. It also adds that a fourth brother, Ahmad Jasem, has been reported missing.
The report said two ISF vehicles, put at the disposal of the Syrian Embassy in Beirut, were used in the kidnapping of the Jasem brothers.
It detailed interception of 19 phone calls made by Hajj to the Syrian Embassy, which in turn coordinated with Lebanese security forces to facilitate their travel to Yanta, in east Lebanon where, the report says. The four were handed over to activists from Ahmad Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command on the Lebanon-Syria border.
Hajj is the son of Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, Lebanon’s former ISF chief who was held along with three other Lebanese generals for four years for alleged involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
According to the report, he has denied any involvement in the kidnapping, saying in his testimony that on the night of Feb. 24, 2011 he was on a mission with Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel Karim Ali in Baabda, north of Beirut.
Hajj said he did not leave the house of an ambassador in Baabda where Ali was visiting and denied making a trip to Baabda Serail or Baabda police station.
Ali Friday demanded Rifi provide evidence over the allegations that the embassy was involved in the kidnap of the Jasem brothers and Shibli Aisamy, an 86-year-old Syrian dissident.
The ambassador Tuesday responded to a campaign by the opposition March 14 coalition over comments he made about Rifi.
“I don’t want to go into details about reactions and counter-reactions in this dear country … I am surprised that this is considered meddling in Lebanese affairs,” Ali said after meeting former Prime Minister Salim Hoss.
Ali said Friday that Rifi’s comments were baseless.
Aisamy’s daughter said Tuesday that her father was being held in Syria and that his health was deteriorating.
“We have learned [from security leaks] that my father has been held in Syria since the first days of his abduction [in May],” Rajaa Sharafeddine told The Daily Star.
“We’ve also been told that my father’s health is deteriorating,” the dissident’s daughter added.
Sharafeddine said that before his kidnapping, Aisamy’s blood pressure “would fluctuate a great deal.”
Sharafeddine added that she held both the Lebanese and Syrian governments responsible for Aisamy’s well-being, and pleaded for her father’s immediate release.
She said the family had no other details regarding her father’s physical condition, and added that they had been in contact with international humans rights activists and she hoped something could be arranged that would allow her to meet with her father.
Aisamy was abducted in May, in the town of Aley, minutes after leaving his daughter’s home for a walk.
According to Sharafeddine, her father went missing after he left her home in the afternoon of May 24.
He was spending the summer with his Syrian wife in Aley, where Sharafeddine, who is married to a local resident, lives.
Aisamy fled Syria in 1966 over political differences with then-President Hafez Assad and has since lived in Iraq, Egypt and the United States. He has not reportedly been involved in politics since 1992.
It includes statements from witnesses who have provided solid evidence that three brothers from the Jasem family were kidnapped outside Baabda Serail on Feb. 24 by a four-man group led by Lt. Salah Ali al-Hajj, the head of the Syrian Embassy guard unit. It also adds that a fourth brother, Ahmad Jasem, has been reported missing.
The report said two ISF vehicles, put at the disposal of the Syrian Embassy in Beirut, were used in the kidnapping of the Jasem brothers.
It detailed interception of 19 phone calls made by Hajj to the Syrian Embassy, which in turn coordinated with Lebanese security forces to facilitate their travel to Yanta, in east Lebanon where, the report says. The four were handed over to activists from Ahmad Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command on the Lebanon-Syria border.
Hajj is the son of Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, Lebanon’s former ISF chief who was held along with three other Lebanese generals for four years for alleged involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
According to the report, he has denied any involvement in the kidnapping, saying in his testimony that on the night of Feb. 24, 2011 he was on a mission with Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel Karim Ali in Baabda, north of Beirut.
Hajj said he did not leave the house of an ambassador in Baabda where Ali was visiting and denied making a trip to Baabda Serail or Baabda police station.
Ali Friday demanded Rifi provide evidence over the allegations that the embassy was involved in the kidnap of the Jasem brothers and Shibli Aisamy, an 86-year-old Syrian dissident.
The ambassador Tuesday responded to a campaign by the opposition March 14 coalition over comments he made about Rifi.
“I don’t want to go into details about reactions and counter-reactions in this dear country … I am surprised that this is considered meddling in Lebanese affairs,” Ali said after meeting former Prime Minister Salim Hoss.
Ali said Friday that Rifi’s comments were baseless.
Aisamy’s daughter said Tuesday that her father was being held in Syria and that his health was deteriorating.
“We have learned [from security leaks] that my father has been held in Syria since the first days of his abduction [in May],” Rajaa Sharafeddine told The Daily Star.
“We’ve also been told that my father’s health is deteriorating,” the dissident’s daughter added.
Sharafeddine said that before his kidnapping, Aisamy’s blood pressure “would fluctuate a great deal.”
Sharafeddine added that she held both the Lebanese and Syrian governments responsible for Aisamy’s well-being, and pleaded for her father’s immediate release.
She said the family had no other details regarding her father’s physical condition, and added that they had been in contact with international humans rights activists and she hoped something could be arranged that would allow her to meet with her father.
Aisamy was abducted in May, in the town of Aley, minutes after leaving his daughter’s home for a walk.
According to Sharafeddine, her father went missing after he left her home in the afternoon of May 24.
He was spending the summer with his Syrian wife in Aley, where Sharafeddine, who is married to a local resident, lives.
Aisamy fled Syria in 1966 over political differences with then-President Hafez Assad and has since lived in Iraq, Egypt and the United States. He has not reportedly been involved in politics since 1992.
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