BEIRUT: Police arrested Thursday the mother of a girl who was kidnapped in the town of Jbeil over her alleged role in the abduction, the Internal Security Forces said, after they freed the 11-year-old earlier in the day. Shahenda Farouq Zohbi, the daughter of farmers from the north Lebanon region of Akkar who work in Jbeil, was kidnapped Wednesday by two individuals outside her home, security sources said.
The girl’s alleged kidnappers, identified as Syrian A. Mansour and M. Mekdash, demanded a ransom of $80,000 during a telephone call to Zohbi’s father, sources said. The second kidnapper’s nationality remains unknown.
The father reported the incident to the police and authorities managed to lure the kidnappers to the Amsheet Highway linking Jbeil to Beirut.
Police said one of the kidnappers attempted to flee the scene but police officers shot his vehicle’s tires and were able to arrest him after a brief chase.
The girl was slightly wounded during the shootout between the police and her kidnappers, sources said.
An investigation revealed that one of the pair allegedly abducted the girl and handed her over to the other man, asking that she be kept in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh in Tripoli until the ransom was delivered, according to the police statement.
Police said they arrested the two men along with the girl’s mother, 37, for complicity in the kidnapping.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese man who was abducted by gunmen in Nigeria has been released, the state-run National News Agency said.
Tony Amin Nader, from Akkar, was kidnapped on July 9 by an armed Nigerian faction, which handed him over Thursday to the Nigerian army.
Nader’s family was informed of his release. “He will arrive on the first plane from Nigeria to Lebanon,” said his brother, George.
He thanked those involved in negotiating his brother’s release, including caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and Lebanon’s ambassador to Nigeria.
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26/07/2013
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