Rifi’s Report Offers Insight into Kidnapping of Jassem Brothers by Salah Hajj
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi’s investigation report on the kidnapping of Syrian opposition members reveals that the head of the Syrian embassy guard unit, First Lt. Salah Hajj, was the ringleader of the group that abducted the Jassem brothers.
An Nahar daily published on Tuesday the full report, which is based on witness testimony and telecommunications data.
Rifi said the son of former ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj and four other men kidnapped the Jassem brothers from outside the Baabda Serail on Feb. 24 at 11:00 pm. They were driving two vehicles carrying ISF license plates put at the disposal of the Syrian embassy.
On that day, Jassem al-Jassem was set free after being held for distributing flyers. His brothers Ali and Shabib came to pick him up from the Serail and were not seen again.
The fourth brother, Ahmed al-Jassem, has also disappeared, the report said.
It also unveiled detailed information about the movements of the vehicles and mobile phone calls that Salah Hajj made with a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command ahead of handing him over the brothers in Yanta on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
According to the report, Hajj’s vehicle was seen in the area of Baabda immediately before and after the kidnapping. It was later seen heading towards Dahr al-Baidar and then to Yanta at around 1:47 am on Feb. 25.
The vehicle later returned to the area of Bar Elias and then to Mar Mikhael near Beirut.
The telecom data also unveils that al-Hajj made several phone calls
with PFLP-GC militant Bater Rateb al-Nemr, who goes by the nom de guerre of Abou Nemr.
Another PFLP-GC militant had also contacted al-Hajj from a Syrian number during the kidnapping process.
Rifi concludes that Abu Rateb was coordinating between al-Hajj and the owner of the Syrian number until he delivered them to a PFLP-GC fighter on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
The report was published after Rifi told the parliamentary human rights committee last week that the ISF had "dangerous information" linking the Syrian embassy to the disappearance of Syrian opposition member Shebli al-Aisamy in Aley in May.
But Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali denied any involvement and challenged Rifi to provide evidence.
Although the ISF chief wrote a detailed report on the kidnapping of the Jassem brothers, he stressed that despite the similarity of the two cases, the investigation into al-Aisamy’s abduction was not over yet.
Rifi has also separated the two kidnappings from the investigation into the case of Joseph Sader, an official at Middle East Airline's IT department, who was seized in Feb. 2009 near Rafik Hariri international airport by unidentified assailants.
The release of the investigation report is a blow to the military judiciary and the interior ministry, which according to An Nahar, haven’t taken any action to resolve the issue and unveil the fate of the abductees almost eight months after Rifi referred the information to them.
The newspaper also said that a disciplinary action was taken against Hajj for a 30-day period after he claimed during the questioning that he was in the area of Baabda in a mission linked to the Syrian ambassador when the kidnapping took place.
18 October 2011, 08:45
09
good investigative work and a shame on the Syriam embassy in Lebanon
18 October 2011, 10:20
08
...... if you bring all the evidence in the world, it will not help. If the angels come down to earth and appear to Aoun, Nassrallah, and the rest of the thugs in Lebanon, it will not help. It will always be a conspiracy against the great regime of Syria and their glorious resistance. Anyway, well done Mr. Ashraf Riffi......!
18 October 2011, 10:56
80
to trust rifi is to be idiot.
of course, the zionist information war department is happy to say something, but who cares
18 October 2011, 11:17
03
لبنان بلد الحرية و التعبير الحر
هاد كله حبر على ورق كانوا يدرسونا ياه بالمدارس. لازم يكون في رد صارخ و عنيف على كل هذه التجاوزات, مش مسموح لاي شخص يغتصب حرية الاخر لو شو ما كان يكون في دولة هي يلي بتتصرف.
شي مخزي يلي صار, الناس بتحتمي فينا و نحن منردهم من مطرح ما اجوا.
18 October 2011, 12:27
06
Ya Jabal Ya Ahbal: If Riffi were Shiite, I am sure you will trust him and you will not be an idiot!
18 October 2011, 13:15
50
the halucinatory zionist information war department is trying to put sectarian note on this. and also, some pathetic try to insult me.
you are so below me, your insults does not work
18 October 2011, 14:18
01
too late now,the syrians way of behaving in their moukabarat:
they WILL liquidate salah el hajj now that the matter is known.
18 October 2011, 14:35
01
Like father like son, I guess now everyone knows the worst kept secret of who was kidnapping Lebanese citizens on behalf of the Syrian occupation and shipping them to prisons in Syria.
It will be fun watching Samar get hysterical again.
18 October 2011, 15:39
01
Why you are wondering guys ?? nothing should differ the Syrians inside Syria from the ones in Lebanon,
It is an obvious normal simple act for them.
18 October 2011, 16:01
03
Unfortunately Hizballa controls the state of Lebanon. Aoun is profiting from this and they both cannot wait until they get their hand on the "Internal Security Forces". If they do then bye bye freedom. Wake up M8 followers, you will thrown to the wolves when Hizb and aoun don't have any more use for you. Think about the future of Lebanon and not only about the big mouse aoun and his master the rat hole lover Nousallah. wake up before it's too late.
18 October 2011, 17:18
01
geha I beg to defer,jabalamel is in fact a Lebanese Shiite, you can tell from the beautiful green flag his avatar is sporting no one else would be stupid enough to admit they support the assteez's party.
That said jamal feels the need to over compensate what with the embarrassing wikileaks about assteez nabih et al. opinion on the Iranian party.
Dr Khalifeh thinks that the Iranian party will kill us all.
MP Jaber reveals the Iranian party`s corruption and of betraying it`s supporters.
And who can forget the assteez himself hoping during the 2006 war that Israel would be allowed a little more time to send the Iranian party back to the stone age which is very handy as that is where their ideology lays.
So please guys and gals be gentle on jabalamel he`s inadequate and constipated all on his own.
18 October 2011, 23:13
00
Attention all shoppers, large spill of very sickening and vile pile of vomit on isle 10. Store emergency cleaning crew, kindly proceed to the location with hazardous material protective suits and large quantities of Dettol to quickly mop up and disinfect the isle from jabal mhebeel.
