BEIRUT: Syrian authorities released Sunday two Lebanese farmers
who were kidnapped last week in the northern border village of Abboudieh, the
Lebanese Army said in a statement. “As a result of ... efforts, Mohammad Yassin
Merhebi and Mahdi Hamdan were released this afternoon,” the Army said.
“The office of cooperation and coordination between Lebanese and
Syrian armies transferred them to the [general] directorate of [Army]
intelligence at the Masnaa border crossing,” the statement added. The two were
then taken to Akkar and released.
Nasri Khoury, the head of the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council,
told the National News Agency that he had taken Merhebi and Hamdan to the Army.
Merhebi and Hamdan were abducted last Wednesday by Syrian troops
in the Akkar village of Abboudieh.
Residents of Abboudieh and a nearby border village, Arida,
blocked the highway that links Akkar to Tripoli with burning tires Wednesday
night, and family members began protesting at the border crossings of Abboudieh
and Arida, blocking roads to them.
Refaat Ali Eid, the head of the Arab Democratic Party, which
holds sway in the predominantly Alawite Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen,
said Saturday the two farmers would be released as soon as he steps in to
mediate. Merhebi is a Sunni, while Hamdan is an Alawite. Members of both sects
live in Abboudieh. Eid offered Sunday to drive the two farmers home.
The Future parliamentary bloc of former Prime Minister Saad
Hariri gave a memo to U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly Friday
documenting breaches of Lebanese sovereignty by the Syrian Army.
Several
Lebanese have been killed or kidnapped by Syrian troops along the
Lebanese-Syrian borders since the start of the uprising against the regime of
Syria’s President Bashar Assad in March of last year.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/#axzz1wo3ad9bB
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