The various Lebanese security services were mobilized on Sunday to find Pascal Sleiman, the Lebanese Forces coordinator in Jbeil, who had been kidnapped earlier in the day near the village of Hakel, in this caza.
Sleiman was on his way from Khrabeh, where he was offering condolences to acquaintances, to his own village, Mayfouk, when four armed individuals in a white Subaro blocked his path and forced him to get out of his car, before pushing him into theirs. According to local media, his mobile phone was found late at night on a northern road, but official sources have not confirmed this information.
Pascal Sleiman’s abduction caused a stir in the Jbeil caza, where rallies were held in Jbeil, Amchit and Mastita, while the security services conducted an investigation, under the direct supervision of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Maalaoui and army Commander-in-Chief General Joseph Aoun.
Mikati called Bassam Maalaoui, as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, to urge an intensification of investigations and a collaboration between all the relevant services, so that Pascal Sleiman could be located and released as soon as possible.
In turn, the Minister of the Interior called Sleiman family to assure them that the security services would spare no effort to find him without delay.
As the hours passed, however, tension and anger grew. Some feared that the kidnapping was politically motivated, as Hezbollah, a fierce political opponent of the LF, is omnipresent in the region.
Late at night, supporters of the Lebanese Forces blocked traffic in both directions on the Jbeil highway, in protest at the kidnapping of their comrade, while calls were made for the closure of all commercial and other establishments in the Jbeil caza on Monday. Roads were also blocked in Sin el-Fil and Jal el-Dib.
In Mastita, several FL and Kataëb officials and MPs gathered in the LF office to follow the investigation closely. The Lebanese Forces’ leader, Samir Geagea joined them late in the evening.
Sleiman’s kidnapping provoked a series of outraged reactions. Kataëb Party leader Samy Gemayel warned “against this dangerous development. He and Member of Parliament Nadim Gemayel (Kataëb) called on the security forces to “work seriously and quickly to find and free Pascal Sleiman. Gemayel noted that he was abducted “in broad daylight in a residential area.
The head of the Renewal parliamentary bloc, Michel Moawad, warned against “a return to practices that marked a dark period in Lebanon’s history,” while his colleague Waddah Sadek (independent) called for restraint, saying it was “necessary not to anticipate events and to let the security services do their work.”
Former MP Farès Souhaid expressed confidence in the security forces, which he said would soon shed light on the case.
