Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
Police Friday freed a Kuwaiti man who was kidnapped in east Lebanon last month, a security source said.
The source said the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch freed Mohsen Barak al-Majed in the east Lebanon town of Taanayel.
Kuwait’s Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Khaled al-Sabah later in the day expressed his gratitude over what he said was the ISF’s coordination with Kuwaiti security.
In a statement, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim praised the ISF over the success of the operation, saying that “the kidnappers did not achieve any of their financial objectives.”
An ISF statement said they launched the operation to free Majed Friday morning, arresting four men, identified by the initials M.L., S.L., H.L. and H.G. A Syrian man, identified by the initials N.T., who was accused of being part of the kidnapping operation, was also arrested in the southern town of Aqabeh.
The statement added that after investigations, the suspects confessed to initiating the kidnapping in the hope of attaining a financial ransom of $1.5 million.
Majed was abducted on Jan. 17 by two gunmen from his farm in the village of Qubb Elias in the Western Bekaa.
At the time, a source told that police who responded to the news of the kidnapping found Mohammad Ezzeddine Ezzeddine, the farm’s caretaker, shot in his leg.
Interrogated by the Internal Security Forces on his way to hospital, Ezzeddine said that two masked gunmen stormed the farm at 10 a.m. and handcuffed him and Majed at gunpoint.
They then separated the two victims after robbing them off three mobile phones. The perpetrators later shot Ezzeddine in his leg and drove away with Majed, using his silver Mercedes, the source said.
