Lebanon's Caretaker Interior Minister, Bassam Mawlawi, confirmed on Monday that the arrest of members of the Assad family last week at Rafik Hariri International Airport (RHIA) was indeed linked to “a case of false passports,” as reported by many local media over the weekend. “The General Security in Lebanon is applying the law, and this case has been transferred to the courts,” said Mawlawi, following a meeting with the head of the Maronite Church, Bechara al-Rai, in Bkirki.

The wife and daughter of Doreid al-Assad, a cousin of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, were arrested at RHIA while attempting to travel on false passports, a source at General Security confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour, but did not specify the exact date of their arrest.

Doreid al-Assad's wife and daughter allegedly entered Lebanon irregularly because their passports had expired, in return for large sums of money. They then retrieved their false documents in Beirut, before attempting to fly to Cairo, according to the Al-Modon media outlet.

Doreid al-Assad, the son of Rifaat al-Assad, brother of former president Hafez al-Assad, was allowed to travel on a valid passport, according to General Security, which did not specify his destination. According to some media reports, the family intended to travel to Cairo. Lebanese security sources quoted by the Associated Press and Reuters indicate that Rifaat al-Assad took a plane from RHIA the day before the arrest of the two women, using his real passport. According to Reuters, he was on his way to Dubai.

Mawlawi had already stated that Lebanon would arrest anyone subject to an international arrest warrant, which is not the case for Doreid al-Assad's wife and daughter.

Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, a high-ranking judicial source who requested anonymity said that Raed Abou Chacra, Attorney General at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, was informed of the case after the two women were arrested at RHIA. He carried out the initial investigations before the case was referred to the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Jamal Hajjar. The two women are still under arrest, contrary to rumors over the weekend that they had been released under pressure from Hezbollah.

Syrian embassy closed 'until further notice'

The repercussions of this affair have notably affected the Syrian embassy in Beirut, which on Saturday announced the suspension of its consular activities until further notice. According to the Al-Modon news site, this decision is linked to the fact that the forged passports may have been issued by the Syrian consulate in Beirut, which has aroused the anger of the new regime in Syria.

Syrian diplomacy has decided to suspend work in the Beirut consulate, and has opened an investigation to determine the identity of those who helped the two women. The Syrian Foreign Affairs Ministry is also investigating whether the embassy in Beirut helped other members of the Assad family to obtain false passports, says the website.

According to information from the Al-Nashra website, the Syrian embassy in Beirut has not issued any passports since Dec. 8. It also announced on its Facebook page two days ago that it was unable to issue passports due to damage to the central passport-issuing system in Damascus. On Dec. 8, the day the Assad regime fell, the Syrian embassy had written on the social network that it was temporarily suspending the receipt of “urgent passport renewal applications” until the centralized system in Damascus was restored.

'Not necessarily Syrian soldiers'

Regarding the arrivals of Syrian irregular immigrants, which have multiplied since the fall of the regime, Bassam Mawlawi explained on Monday that “not all those crossing from Syria into Lebanon are necessarily Syrian army soldiers.” “The General Security is following this issue,” added the Minister, at a time when vehicles carrying Syrians who have entered irregularly have been apprehended by civilians in recent days. “Those who enter Lebanon illegally are arrested by the army, in cooperation with all the security services. These are arrested and handed over to the General Security, who takes the necessary measures,” he added.

On Saturday night, local residents arrested several passengers on board a bus passing through the Bab al-Tabbaneh district of Tripoli in northern Lebanon. According to some sources, the people arrested, who were immediately handed over to the army, were Syrian soldiers of the deposed Assad regime, while others were civilians. A similar incident occurred on Sunday evening in the village of Mechmech, in the Akkar region, when local residents blocked the path of a minibus they considered suspicious. It turned out that the driver was Lebanese and that he was carrying 13 Syrian nationals who had irregularly entered Lebanese territory via one of the clandestine crossings in north-eastern Syria.

In addition, “many members” of the Assad family have recently travelled to Dubai from Beirut, and others have remained in Lebanon since the regime was overthrown, according to Lebanese officials quoted by Reuters. Lebanese authorities have not received any requests from Interpol to arrest them, including Rifaat al-Assad, the officials said.