Prague, Feb 10 (CTK) – Jan Svarc, lawyer of Lebanese Ali Fayad, received $200,000 from Fayad’s relatives shortly before he and four other Czech men were abducted in Lebanon in July 2015, public Czech Radio (CRo) reported on Wednesday.
Svarc said he received the money for his legal services.
He said he lost the money and the receipt for it during the kidnapping in Lebanon and that he had no written contract.
The five Czechs returned to their homeland from Lebanon last Thursday. Fayad was one of three foreigners who were detained in Prague in April 2014 and whose extradition the United States requested over their suspected terrorist activities.
Last week, Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikan did not meet the U.S. request and Fayad and a second suspect with a Lebanese passport, Khaled Marabi, were released from a Prague custody prison. Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky admitted that the release of the five Czech hostages was related to Fayad’s release.
Svarc told CRo that he and other lawyers worked for about one and a half years for Fayad and that the law office should have received the equivalent of up to $1.5 million for this work.
Another of the kidnapped men, journalist Miroslav Dobes, told Wednesday’s issue of daily Pravo that he heard that Svarc was to get a payment for legal services from Fayad’s brother on the day of their abduction.
