General Security Says Rifai in its Custody, Denies Handing him over to Hizbullah

The General Security Directorate stressed on Tuesday that head of the Free Syrian Army command council Colonel Abdullah Rifai is in its custody, denying that he was handed over to Hizbullah to swap him with Imad Ayyad.

“Rifai is still in our custody and his fate is linked to the negotiation process” of the abducted Lebanese soldiers and policemen, the General Security said.

The directorate denied that he was handed over to Hizbullah to exchange him, along with another Syrian, with its fighter Ayyad.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr handed over Rifai in November to the General Security without charging him.

Lebanese army arrested Rifai who was trying to enter Syria using fake documents.

The FSA is the Western-backed moderate group fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

An Nahar newspaper had reported earlier that the release of Ayyad last week was in exchange for two Syrians, one of them was in the custody of the Lebanese authorities.

Sources told the daily that the Syrian detainee could have been used in negotiations with the Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State group to secure the safe release of the kidnapped servicemen, who were taken hostage when the two groups withdrew from the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.

Hizbullah said last Tuesday that one of its members, Ayyad, was freed in exchange for two gunmen who were in the party's custody.

Ayyad had been in the custody of Syrian groups in the mountains of the Qalamun region near Lebanon's border.

The party has been fighting alongside troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad against rebels seeking to topple him.

The matter drew the ire of the families of captive servicemen, who expressed regret at Hizbullah's ability to engage in a prisoner swap with Syrian gunmen and the failure of the Lebanese government to do so.

H.K.

G.K.