Prague, July 21 (CTK) – No one has contacted the state over the five Czechs who have disappeared in Lebanon, Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek (Social Democrats, CSSD) said after a meeting of the emergency committee yesterday, adding that it is not clear whether the men are still in Lebanon.
The ministry’s spokeswoman Michaela Lagronova said two experts on the region are heading for Lebanon “to reinforce cooperation with the Lebanese in dealing with the case.” She would not elaborate.
Zaoralek warned that the number of Czechs going missing abroad can grow now that the security risks are much bigger than before.
The Intelligence Activity Committee, a standing body of the National Security Council, will meet tonight. Zaoralek will inform Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD) of the meeting of the emergency committee that will meet again on Friday.
The five Czechs went missing on Saturday morning. “No one has contacted us, we do not have any information on their movement and on where they are now,” Zaoralek said.
He said he does not have even any definitive information on whether the missing Czechs may have crossed the Lebanese border.
Zaoralek said the ministry has information on the search from the men from Lebanese partners.
He refused to release the identity of the men not to threaten their security. “Any information I would provide or any speculation could threaten their security,” Zaoralek said.
He said kidnapping is not the sole variant that is being investigated.
The Lebanese police found a taxi on which the missing men rode and their personal belongings in the Bekaa Valley off the Syrian border.
According to the Lebanese press and investigators, they were most probably kidnapped. They put the case in connection with Ali Fayad who, together with another two men, was arrested in Prague and is waiting for extradition to the United States.
The group was comprised of two journalists from a regional television station who were to allegedly make a reportage on refugees on the Lebanese-Syrian border, an interpreter and Fayad’s lawyer who went to Lebanon in connection with his client’s case, his legal office has said.
The fifth Czech man who went missing is a high-ranking security officer, according to the Lebanese media. The Czech press writes that he was a military agent in the past and has experience from Afghanistan. The legal office said he travelled to Lebanon as a security adviser to the group.
Together with them, Saib Munir Taan, Fayad’s brother, has disappeared. He was detained in the Czech Republic in the past on suspicion of a planned sale of weapons and cocaine to U.S. agents who pretended being members of the Colombian terrorist organisation FARC. The Lebanese media say the effort to secure the release of Fayad may be behind the kidnapping. However, his lawyer and family members have rejected this.
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