Prague, Nov 22 (CTK) – The Czech National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) has recently shelved the investigation of the case of five Czech men who were abducted in Lebanon in 2015, Aktualne.cz news site wrote on Wednesday.
One of the kidnapped men, journalist Pavel Kofron, said he received the official news on the shelving of the case by mail today. Lawyer Jan Svarc, also one of the five, said he received this information as well.
Svarc, Kofron, interpreter from Arabic Adam Homsi, journalist Miroslav Dobes and military intelligence agent Martin Psik were kidnapped in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon near the Syrian border in July 2015. Svarc was the lawyer of Lebanese agent Ali Fayad who was arrested in the Czech Republic and whose extradition the United States demanded.
The men returned to the Czech Republic in February 2016. On the same day, Fayad was released from custody in the Czech Republic.
Shortly afterwards, Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky confirmed to the media that the release of the five men was made conditional on the Czech refusal to extradite Fayad to the USA.
