Lebanon issues 13 arrest warrants for abduction of Turkish pilots

Lebanon on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against three detainees and 10 family members of the 11 pilgrims abducted in Syria, on charges of “forming an armed gang and abducting the two Turkish pilots,” the state-run National News Agency quoted a judiciary officer as saying.

Two Turkish pilots were kidnapped last Thursday while en route from Beirut Rafic Hairi airport to a hotel.

Local media reported that a group then claimed responsibility for the abduction, calling for releasing nine Lebanese Shi’ite Muslims who were kidnapped near the Turkish-Syrian border last year to swap the two Turks.

In May 2012, 11 Lebanese pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria’s Aleppo province as they were returning to Lebanon from a pilgrimage trip to Iran. Two of them have been released, while the rest remain held in the Aazaz region.

Hayat Awali, a spokeswoman for the families of the kidnapped pilgrims told LBCI television on Tuesday that “We knew about the lawsuits against us from media sources but we were not formally notified.”

The families said a statement that the arrest warrants “will prevent them from following up the case of their nine relatives.”

They also denied having any links to the abduction.