The three suspected kidnappers of a Syrian man who was found dead in Dahr al-Baidar stand against a wall. (Credit: Internal Security Forces)
BEIRUT — The Internal Security Forces (ISF) on Monday arrested the suspected kidnappers of a young Syrian man whose body, which bore traces of torture, was found last week in the Bekaa Valley town of Dahr al-Baidar, the ISF announced in a statement on Friday.
The 25-year-old man's body was found on April 25, with his hands bound in cuffs and his feet tied with a rope, according to the ISF. The forensic examination showed that he had been beaten, tortured and stabbed. The ISF was able to identify the man after receiving a notice, on April 27, from a 41-year-old Lebanese woman who reported that her Syrian nephew had been kidnapped on April 19.
She told the ISF that the unidentified kidnappers demanded a $20,000 ransom.
Police managed to identify the suspected kidnappers, three Syrians aged 21, 25 and 30, who were arrested on Monday in Mreijeh in the southern suburbs of Beirut, as well as in Beirut's Raouche area, according to the ISF statement. The three suspects confessed to kidnapping the young man with other people, with the aim of demanding a ransom.
According to their confession, the victim was kidnapped in Horch Tabet, an eastern suburb of Beirut, and then taken to the Burj Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut's southern suburbs, where he was held in a warehouse and tortured.
The kidnappers sent videos and photos of the abuse to his family, and escalated the violence when his relatives did not respond to their ransom demand, the police said.
They then allegedly beat the young man on the head and body with a gun and a wooden bat, then burned him with cigarettes before stabbing him, which led to his death. The kidnappers then took the body in a rented vehicle and disposed of it in the locality of Dahr al-Baidar.
The three alleged kidnappers were handed over to the judicial authorities. The ISF also said they are on the lookout for other people involved in the killing.