Charbel Promises Crackdown to Eliminate Kidnap-for-Ransom Phenomenon

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Thursday the results of a security plan aimed at fighting the kidnap-for-ransom phenomenon in Lebanon will begin appearing in the coming few days.

“We have names and information that help us in our mission,” the minister told several local newspapers. “We are clamping down on the network and its subsidiaries.”

“There will be no kidnappings in Lebanon after seven days,” Charbel said following a cabinet session on Wednesday.

The security agencies told the government about the plan, he told the dailies, saying the release of Fouad Daoud was the starting point in the operation that would lead to setting free the remaining kidnapped people.

The Army Intelligence freed Daoud, a Lebanese man abducted last week for ransom, following clashes with his kidnappers in the area of Tall al-Abyad in Baalbek, the military said Wednesday.

Daoud was freed and one of the abductors was arrested, the army said, adding that it has continued to pursue the remaining kidnappers to seize them and hand them over to the judiciary.

Daoud, who hails from the eastern city of Zahle, was one of several businessmen kidnapped in the country lately.

Ali Ahmed Mansour was abducted Tuesday night by unknown assailants on the junction of the town of Gaza in Western Bekaa. The Abductors have asked for a $15 million ransom.

Another Lebanese man, Youssef Beshara, who is the brother of the head of the Bakeries Association, was released for a ransom of $400,000, which was paid by his wife near Mar Mikhael church in Beirut's al-Shiyyah district.

The kidnap-for-ransom phenomenon has been criticized by officials from across the political spectrum.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat told As Safir that the abductions “could reach everyone” if they were not brought under control “because the issue is not political.”

Armed forces should clamp down on the abductors to prevent “the law of the jungle” from imposing itself, said Jumblat, a centrist.

Hizbullah Minister Mohammed Fneish also told the newspaper that the party rejects any attempt to tamper with security.

“The security forces should play their role in preventing the kidnapping operations and pursue the suspects,” he said, adding “we fully back them in this regard without any reservations.”