Couple, Relative Abducted by Gunmen in Tripoli over Marriage Dispute
A couple and their relative were kidnapped Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli in connection with a marriage dispute.
“A man, his wife and his cousin were abducted in the Tripoli area of al-Dam wal Farz over family disputes,” state-run National News Agency revealed, denying earlier media reports that said the abductees were two women and a child.
Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) identified the three as Issa Mustafa Abous, his wife Sara Fahd al-Hassan and Omar Bustani, who is Abous' cousin.
"The investigations of the Internal Security Forces have revealed that Issa Mustafa A., who hails from Tripoli, had married Baalbek resident Sara F. around a month and a half ago without the consent of her family, which later staged several failed attempts to bring her back,” NNA said.
“Today, (Sunday), Sara's mother asked her daughter and son-in-law to meet her over lunch at a restaurant in the al-Dam wal Farz area, where masked individuals, likely from the wife's family, were waiting for them in four cars,” the agency added.
The masked men “abducted Sara, her husband and his cousin and took them to an unknown destination,” NNA said.
However, Brig. Gen. Bassam al-Ayyoubi, chief of the Tripoli ISF department, announced later on Sunday that Issa and Omar were on their way back to the northern city after they were freed by their abductors.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, who hails from Tripoli, issued a statement noting that the kidnappers “claimed that they belong to a security agency.”
Rifi said he contacted North Prosecutor Judge Wael al-Hassan, asking him to “identify the perpetrators, launch legal measures against them and secure the release of the abductees, given the sensitivity of the crime and the repercussions it may lead to at all levels.”
Y.R.
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