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Mystery shrouds case of five abducted Czechs

Mohammed Zaatari| The Daily Star

ANSAR, Lebanon: Mystery surrounds the case of five Czech nationals who went missing in the Bekaa Valley over the weekend, as the family of the Lebanese national who drove them there dismissed reports that he was involved in a possible kidnapping.

The news of the disappearance of the five Czechs emerged Saturday, when their luggage was found in a van in the western Bekaa town of Kefraya. It included a leather bag that contained Lebanese, Czech and European currencies. Czech passports and three cameras were also found strewn inside the car.

Saeb Taan Fayyad, the Lebanese driver of the foreign nationals, also went missing.

As the Army intensified efforts to locate the six individuals, security sources ruled out the possibility that the Czechs were kidnapped for political reasons.

They said it was likely that Fayyad was involved in kidnapping the Czech nationals to swap them for his brother Ali, arrested in Prague last year on terrorism and drug trafficking charges, and is being sought for extradition by U.S. authorities. The Taan Fayyads hail from the Ansar village in Nabatieh.

The sources said that the search for the missing individuals was ongoing in the western Bekaa Valley and the south, saying it was likely the kidnappers drove into the district of Nabatieh through the Maydoun-Mashghara road.

But the family of Saeb Taan Fayyad dismissed accusations that he was involved in the kidnapping of Sherfak Jean, Homsi Adam, Dubless Mersclave, Kovon Parfil and Debsek Marleine Bisick, aged between 25 and 47.

“We call on media outlets to be objective,” said lawyer Kamal Lahhaf, the Taan Fayad brothers’ nephew who spoke on behalf of the family.

“They have to know that such claims are having a bad impact on his family,” he told The Daily Star, sitting in the house of Saeb in Ansar.

Lahhaf explained that among the kidnapped Czechs was Ali’s lawyer, who had been defending his case over the past year and a half, along with the translator, who provided his services to both during court sessions.

He said it was the third time that the Czech lawyer had visited Lebanon to brief Ali’s family about the developments related to his case.

He added it was the second time that the other three Czechs, who presented themselves as journalists, had come to Lebanon with the lawyer and the translator.

Lahhaf said that Saeb had Ali’s entire file and that he had visited him in prison.

“What we know is that just like every time, Saeb went to the airport to pick up the Czechs, as they usually come to his house,” Lahhaf said.

“But he went missing Thursday. We have no other details about the case except for what we hear on news and from the security services. We don’t know why the car was in Kefraya or in the Bekaa Valley,” Lahhaf added.

“In short, Saeb was kidnapped with the Czech delegation and the Lebanese state has to give us information about them.”

He dismissed media reports that Saeb was a taxi driver working at the airport, noting that he has worked as an inspector for the state-run telecom provider, Ogero, since the 1990s. Lahhaf said that Ali was not a member of Hezbollah or any other party.

He explained that Ali was arrested by Czech authorities “five minutes” after landing at the airport in April 2014 based on a U.S. arrest warrant rather than any accusation pressed by the Czech Republic.Lahhaf said that during a visit to Lebanon seven months ago, the Czech lawyer told Ali’s family that his arrest was politically motivated, saying there was no proof that he committed any crime in the U.S. or Czech territories.

Lahhaf claimed Ali served as an adviser to one of the Ukrainian defense ministers, adding that the Czech lawyer described Ali’s trial in the Czech Republic as a “farce.”

Echoing Lahhaf, Czech daily newspaper Blesk said that one of the missing Czechs was the translator of one of three Lebanese men who are being tried in Prague and that another missing man was his lawyer.

It said one of the Czech journalists was a cameraman while the other was a reporter, and both worked for the same regional TV station in the Czech Republic. It said it was unclear who sent them to provide TV footage.

Ramez Amhaz, the mayor of the Baalbek-Hermel town of Labweh, told the Lebanese MTV station that the Czech journalists interviewed him in the village days ago. MTV also said that one of the missing Czechs was a security official.

The Czech Foreign Ministry confirmed the news of their disappearance Saturday night, after the country’s authorities held a crisis meeting to discuss the matter.

Czech authorities announced that they would not delve into any details concerning abduction theories in an effort to secure the lives of the missing people.

The disappearance of the Czechs brought back memories of seven Estonian cyclists who were snatched near Zahle, also in the Bekaa Valley, in March 2011. They were released four months later in return for a ransom.