Machnouk says kidnapping of Czechs linked to 'drug and arms trafficking'

by Naharnet Press Office almost 9 years old

Preliminary investigations into the kidnapping of five Czech citizens in Lebanon last week suggest it is a criminal case, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouk said on Wednesday.

“We have arrived at the beginning of the end of the thread (of investigations) and it concerns mafias, drug trafficking and weapons,” he said, quoted by the official National News Agency.

Machnouk, who was speaking during a visit to France, did not provide further details on the matter.

His comments constitute the government's first official comment on the investigation into the missing Czechs.

The five men disappeared last Friday in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, along with a Lebanese citizen.

The cause of the kidnapping remains a mystery, but there has been speculation that it is linked to the case of a Lebanese man detained in the Czech Republic, Ali Taan Fayyad.

Fayyad's brother was the Lebanese citizen missing with the group, and his lawyer was part of the Czech group.

Fayyad's family has denied any involvement in the kidnapping, which was reported after the group's car was found abandoned in the western part of the Bekaa.

Prague refused to speculate on the matter, or even to confirm that the group had been kidnapped.

Kidnappings of foreigners have been rare in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war, during which around 100 foreigners, mostly Americans and Western Europeans, were kidnapped.