Dubai city in the United Arab Emirates. (Credit: AFP/Getty images)
BEIRUT — The mayor of Azzeh in the district of Nabatieh, Mustafa Jammoul, has been missing in Dubai since Friday and has been reportedly detained by Emirati authorities, according to his family, our correspondent in the South reported Wednesday.
Jammoul left the hotel where he was staying to meet people who were waiting for him and has been missing since. According to close friends, the family received information that Jammoul had been detained by Emirati authorities. The reasons for his reported detention and the authorities holding him remain unknown. Jammoul holds both Lebanese and Canadian citizenship.
His family is calling for clarification of his whereabouts and the circumstances surrounding his reported detention, as well as guarantees of his legal rights and access to him.
Several Lebanese residents of the UAE, most of them from the Shiite community, have been arrested and sometimes convicted in recent years for alleged links with Hezbollah, considered "terrorist" by some Gulf countries.
In May 2023, Lebanese authorities addressed the death of Ghazi Ezzeddine, a Lebanese citizen who died in the UAE, with the Foreign Ministry saying he had died of a heart attack, while a Lebanese diplomatic source had told L’Orient Today that he had died in detention.
Reporting contributed by our correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah