Prague, July 31 (CTK) – Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek wants to exchange information about the search for five missing Czechs during his planned visit to Lebanon, which is its only purpose, he told reporters after a meeting of the emergency team Friday.
Zaoralek (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) does not know the exact date of his trip to Beirut yet.
The ministry’s spokeswoman Michaela Lagronova said the date would like to be set on Monday.
According to previous unofficial information, Zaoralek should fly to Beirut next week.
“The only purpose of this trip, if it takes place, will be to gain information,” said Zaoralek, adding that he would be accompanied by a police team investigating the case in the Czech Republic.
“We are ready to release the information we have to Lebanese representatives and at the same time, we would like to cooperate and possibly get information from them about what happened there,” he added.
Zaoralek dismissed the speculations saying he would negotiate with someone else in Lebanon, apart from local politicians and investigators.
The authorities do not know yet where the missing Czechs stay and who is behind their disappearance, Zaoralek said.
The five men went missing in the Bekaa Valley, eastern Lebanon, on July 18.
The police have released their photographs in the database of missing people.
The group comprises two regional TV station reporters, a lawyer, an interpreter and a man who worked as a military intelligence agent in Afghanistan who allegedly accompanied the group as their security aide. Their names were released by the media.
The Lebanese media have speculated that their kidnapping may be connected with the case of Ali Fayad, who was arrested in the Czech Republic last year and who is a half-brother of a man who disappeared along with the Czechs. However, his family denies it.
Fayad’s lawyer told the Prague Municipal Court last December that Fayad worked for Lebanon’s military intelligence service. He said Fayad should be released because he had acted as an agent.
The public Czech Radio (CRo) said on Thursday it has a letter in which Lebanese intelligence declared that Fayad worked for it.
Former Czech military intelligence chief Andor Sandor told Friday’s issue of daily Pravo that it is highly unlikely that Lebanon would make up the information about Fayad’s intelligence activities.
Sandor said all good intelligence services tried to protect its members.
Lebanese Interior Minister Nuhad al-Mashnuq said last week the case had a criminal background. The kidnapping is allegedly linked to drug and arms smuggling.
hol,kva/dr/ms
