The photo published by MP Hadi Abou al-Hosn of the three men freed by military intelligence after being kidnapped by a criminal gang to be released for a ransom. (Credit: @HadiAboulHOsn/X)
The army's intelligence services managed on Thursday to free three men who had been kidnapped on Sept. 9 by a gang in the Bekaa region, according to a statement from the army published on the institution's official account on X.
Another message on X, published by MP Hadi Abou al-Hosn (Progressive Socialist Party) on Thursday, is a little more explicit.
"We pay tribute to the efforts of the Lebanese army intelligence services that allowed the release of [Druze] Sheikh Mounir Makarem, Bashar Hamze and Majd Bou Kanso, and their safe return to their families," he wrote. According to a security source to L'Orient-Le Jour's correspondent in the Bekaa, Makarem and Bou Kanso are Syrians living in Lebanon, and Hamze is Lebanese.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, Abou al-Hosn gave more details on the case.
"Four days ago, Sheikh Mounir Makarem and his companions, who all work in decorative crafts, particularly in plaster ornaments, were contacted by people who pretended to be contractors on a construction site in the Qaa region (Bekaa)," he stated.
The three men traveled to Qaa, but instead of meeting a construction contractor there, they were abducted in that area by members of a criminal gang. According to the MP, they were taken into the Syrian interior. The gang demanded a sum of money to release them.
Abou al-Hosn added that "no sum [of money] was paid."
"The army's intelligence service managed to trace the various members of the gang, arresting one of them in Lebanon," he said. With the help of pressure, the gang released the three men, who returned home.
Cases of kidnapping for ransom are not uncommon in Lebanon, especially in the border regions. The latest was the release of eight Palestinians living in the Bourj al-Barajneh camp on Sept. 11 from a gang that had posed as smugglers who could facilitate their illegal emigration to Europe. The eight young men were found in the Hermel region, northern Bekaa. A security source told L'Orient-Le Jour's correspondent in the Bekaa that the victims had been taken to Syria before being handed over to the military intelligence.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.