Lebanese cabinet to discuss kidnapping spree in Lebanon

President Michel Sleiman instructed Lebanon’s top security leaders to attend a Cabinet meeting Wednesday to discuss ways to put an end to the spate of kidnappings in the country. Prior to the Cabinet meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. at Baabda Palace, Prime Minister Najib Mikati discussed the kidnapping spree with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi and senior security officers at the Grand Serail. Security sources told The Daily Star that the meeting focused on ways to crack down on kidnappings. “The kidnap-for-ransom phenomenon hits the prestige of the state and [strikes at] the heart of stability,” Mikati told reporters at the end of the meeting. “The security services must take stringent and precautionary measures to prevent the recurrence of such condemnable incidents,” he added. The latest of the kidnappings was that of Ali Ahmad Mansour, a 73-year-old wealthy financier, in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley Tuesday. His captors are demanding $15 million for his release. Fouad Daoud, 45, was kidnapped last week in the Bekaa city of Zahle. The kidnappers have demanded $250,000 in ransom, though Daoud is thought to be of limited means. A statement by Zahle’s political and religious forces as well as the municipality and the Traders’ Association called for a daylong strike Thursday to protest Daoud’s kidnapping. The statement also called for a sit-in at 2 p.m. outside the Zahle Serail to demand Daoud’s release. A Lebanese man abducted earlier in the week in the Metn region northeast of Beirut was released Tuesday after his kidnappers received a ransom of $400,000, security sources told The Daily Star. Youssef Bsharra, brother of Anis Bshara who owns a popular chain of bakeries, was kidnapped over the weekend while driving in Bsalim, northeast of Beirut. Meanwhile, Military Investigative Judge Imad Zein interrogated six suspects from the Meqdad family on charges of forming an armed organization to carry out terrorist acts and kidnappings in Lebanon. The powerful Meqdad clan, under pressure from the Lebanese Army, released Turkish businessman Aydin Tufan Tekin on Sept. 11, nearly a month after it kidnapped him. Two days later, Turkish citizen Abdulbasit Arslan was handed over to Lebanon’s General Security by Al-Mukhtar Al-Thaqafi, the armed group that that held him hostage for almost a month. Four Syrians kidnapped by the Meqdads in August were also released in a Lebanese Army raid last week. The armed wing of the Meqdad clan kidnapped Tekin in mid-August along with a group of Syrian men in retaliation for the abduction of a Meqdad relative in Damascus. Hassan Meqdad was kidnapped by Syrian rebels. The Daily Star