BEIRUT: Syria Wednesday handed over to Lebanese authorities Wael
Abbas, believed to be the mastermind behind the kidnapping of seven Estonians
earlier this year.
General Security verified to The Daily Star the identity of the
suspect.
“Abbas is now at the General Security headquarters in Beirut
amid heavy security,” a security source told The Daily Star on condition of
anonymity.
He was caught trying to cross the border into Syria at the
Masnaa crossing with forged documents when he was detained.
The army has deployed units in the area as a security measure.
Abbas, 29, a Lebanese national who hails from east Lebanon’s
border town of Anjar, has been involved in several recent confrontations with
members of the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch in the Bekaa
Valley, security sources told The Daily Star.
In April he was identified as having escaped the scene of the
shooting by the ISF of Darwish Khanjar, after an exchange of gunfire with the
ISF’s Information Branch.
Abbas did not belong to any terrorist group, information
provided to The Daily Star by judicial sources said.
“He is a paid criminal,” one judicial source said.
The seven Estonians were kidnapped near the town of Zahle in the
Bekaa Valley on March 23 by masked men after they had crossed the border from
Syria by bicycle.
The men were released unharmed four months later on July 14, and
said they had been held in Syria for some part of their kidnapping.
During a series of police operations in search of the abductors
throughout September, including two shootouts, the ISF arrested five and shot
dead two suspects in the case.
The previously
unheard of Haraket Al-Nahda Wal-Islah (Movement for Renewal and Reform) claimed
responsibility for the kidnapping.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2011/Nov-02/152904-syria-hands-over-suspect-in-estonian-abduction-case.ashx#axzz1cYU7Z4LC
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