Former head of the Lebanese General Security Abbas Ibrahim during a ceremony on April 6, 2023. (Credit: NNA)
The former head of the Lebanese General Security Abbas Ibrahim, who retired in early March, assured L'Orient-Le Jour on Thursday that he will continue his mediation work in the case of the two bishops kidnapped in Aleppo in 2013.
The Greek Orthodox bishop of Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi and Youhanna Ibrahim, the Syriac Orthodox metropolitan were kidnapped on April 22, 2013 in Aleppo, while trying to negotiate the release of two priests kidnapped by rebel groups several months earlier.
Abbas Ibrahim, who was following the case, attended a ceremony Thursday organized by the Orthodox and Syriac communities on the 10th anniversary of the kidnapping.
"The last time we heard from the bishops was a year ago," Abbas Ibrahim told L'Orient-Le Jour. He refused to reveal the content of the information obtained.
"Allow me not to reveal all the information I have because silence is what will allow the release of the kidnapped bishops and their safe return," he said at the ceremony held in tribute to the two clerics.
Ibrahim vowed to continue his pursuit of the case, which he described as a "humanitarian and national duty."
Abbas Ibrahim also revealed the creation of a monitoring committee, composed of himself, Marwan Bou Fadel and Habib Frem, who represent the Orthodox Meeting and the Syriac League respectively.
There have been many conflicting reports in recent years about the fate of the two bishops.
A 2021 investigation led by US-based Syrian researcher Mansour Salib, which was disseminated through the digital platform medium.com, indicated that the two bishops were killed three years after their abduction in December 2016 by Islamists from Nour al-Din al-Zenki, an independent group involved in the Syrian conflict.