Wafiq Safa, Head of the Coordination Unit within Hezbollah, embarked on a trip to the Emirates on Monday night.
“Wafiq Safa is attempting to reach an agreement for the release of several Lebanese detainees currently held in Emirati prisons due to their alleged ties with Hezbollah,” stated a Hezbollah spokesperson to Lebanese media.
According to al-Jadeed TV channel, the senior official traveled by private plane, accompanied by “two individuals.” His objective is to bring back the Lebanese detainees “before the end of Ramadan,” around mid-April.
“Dozens of Lebanese, mostly Shiite, have been arrested and sometimes convicted or expelled in recent years in the United Arab Emirates for alleged ties with Hezbollah,” added the spokesperson, “which is listed by the Emirati government and several other Gulf monarchies as a terrorist organization.”
“These arrests occurred amid regional tensions and continued confrontation between the Sunni Gulf monarchies and Shiite Iran,” he added.
In May 2023, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the release of about ten Lebanese detained in the United Arab Emirates. These releases came less than a month after the death in prison of one of their compatriots, Ghazi Ezzeddine.
Aboul-Fadl Choumane, spokesperson for the families of detainees in the Emirates, indicated that “six Lebanese, including four sentenced to life imprisonment and two to 15 years of confinement, are still detained in the Emirates.”
