Report: Abducted Pilgrims in Good Health, in Custody of Abou Hasan
A media official in the Northern Storm Brigade said on Saturday that the Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria's Aazaz are in good health, amid reports that they have are now in custody of Sheikh Munir al-Moften, known as Abou Hasan, after Ammar al-Dadikhi, aka their infamous abductor Abou Ibrahim has reportedly been killed.
LBCI television said that the official, however, did not confirm or deny rumors about Abou Ibrahim's death.
It detailed: “Many attempts to contact Abou Hasan have failed, but Abou al-Moatassem Billah, a man who identified himself as a media official in the Brigade, did answer a call and hinted that the men are in good health.”
“If they weren't, we wouldn't have suggested a swap deal.”
The man denied any Turkish involvement in the deal to swap the men with Syrian women detainees, explaining that reports about it "can be traced back to over two months and it was mentioned on the Northern Storm Brigade's website."
A spokesman for the Northern Storm Brigade had said Friday that the case of the pilgrims will witness an important positive breakthrough within the next 10 days.
The spokesman declined to clarify the nature of the declared breakthrough but he told Turkey's Anatolia news agency that “a list containing the names of dozens of Syrian women detainees will be submitted soon to the Syrian regime through mediators, in order to swap them for the nine Lebanese nationals.”
The families of the nine Lebanese men have been staging several sit-ins against Turkish interests in Lebanon to demand the release of their loved ones, as they have been accusing Ankara of being the sponsor of the kidnappers.
Adham Zgheib recited on Monday a statement in the name of the protesters, confirming that the families will continue their escalatory steps until the release of the abductees and saying they have been “fed up with the false promises given to them over the past 11 months.”
They announced that they have launched a campaign to boycott Turkish products in Lebanon, urging citizens throughout the country to support them.
The families had also prevented in recent days Syrian workers from heading to their places of employment in Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh in an attempt to pressure officials to address the case of the abducted pilgrims.
They followed up this step by closing down a number of Syrian-owned stores in the Hay al-Sellom area in Beirut, saying they will remain shut until the pilgrims are released.
Eleven Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped by an armed group in Syria's Aleppo region near Turkey’s border in May 22, 2012 as they were making their way back by land from pilgrimage in Iran.
Two of them have since been released, while the remaining nine are still being held in Syria's Aazaz area.
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