The three alleged kidnappers, two Syrians and one Lebanese, during their arrest by law enforcement. (Credit: ISF website)
BEIRUT — Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced Friday they had released a Syrian man who was kidnapped in Aley earlier this month shortly after his arrival in Lebanon from Dubai.
Police also arrested the three suspected kidnappers, who had reportedly demanded a ransom of $250,000.
The three suspects allegedly followed the 43-year-old-Syrian man after his arrival at Beirut International Airport on April 16 in vehicles with tinted windows and no license plates, the ISF said. They then kidnapped him in Aley, in Mount Lebanon.
There, the kidnappers allegedly beat and handcuffed him before taking him to an apartment in Ozai, a southern suburb of Beirut, where they forced him to contact his brother in Spain to demand a ransom of $250,000, the ISF said.
Police managed to locate the victim and free him on April 19. They also seized two firearms and arrested the alleged kidnappers, who confessed to planning the kidnapping with other accomplices in Lebanon, as well as two people in Germany and Dubai. No ransom was paid.