Disappearance of photojournalist Samir Kassab: Paul Morcos pledges to follow the case

BEIRUT — Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos met Wednesday with the family of photojournalist Samir Kassab, who went missing in October 2013 while reporting near Aleppo during the Syrian civil war.

He reaffirmed "Samir’s right to return safely to his family" and the "full commitment of the Lebanese state to pursue this humanitarian and national cause until the truth is established."

"The ministry of Information’s top priority has always been and remains Samir’s case," he insisted.

The minister explained that he had written an official letter on Nov. 17 to Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri, who is responsible for Lebanese-Syrian relations and in particular the issue of missing or detained persons.

According to Morcos, Mitri added this issue to the files he is handling with Syrian authorities. The minister also said he brought up the case before the Council of Ministers during a session on Nov. 20.

Morcos further indicated that he met with his Syrian counterpart, Hamza al-Moustapha, on Nov. 26 in Cairo, where he handed over the information in Beirut’s possession.

"This morning, I also contacted my Syrian counterpart, who confirmed he had forwarded the case to Syrian intelligence services according to the new procedures," he added.

"We will continue to follow this case and have agreed on several steps, including referring the matter to the Lebanese Ministry of Justice and the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, created under Law 105 of 2018. We are also preparing a file detailing our findings, which we will attach to the official request in order to see this case through to its conclusion," Morcos assured.

Sky News Arabia cameraman Kassab, along with Mauritanian journalist Ishak Moctar from the same channel and their Syrian driver Adnan Ajaj, disappeared on Oct. 15, 2013.

They were reportedly abducted by the Islamic State (IS), though their fate has never been clarified.

Unconfirmed reports in 2016 suggested they were alive and held in Raqqa, then the capital of the jihadist group, while Lebanese channel LBCI announced their death in April 2019.

This claim, however, was not substantiated and did not rule out the likelihood that they had indeed been kidnapped by IS members.

Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the issue of Lebanese missing in Syria has returned to the forefront, with Beirut demanding to know the fate of hundreds of its citizens.