Local News
Aad to NOW: Lebanese freed by Syria all convicted, enforced disappearance important
By NowLebanon
Jun 23, 2009 - 10:58:31 AM

Head of the Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile Organization in Lebanon (SOLIDE) Ghazi Aad voiced hope in an interview with NOW Lebanon on Tuesday that the release of convicted Lebanese nationals detained in Syria will not be exploited as “huge propaganda” to bury the file of enforced disappearance.  “It is considered the main concern of SOLIDE,” Aad said.

“We always called for the release of all detained and missing Lebanese nationals, especially in Syrian prisons. However, this case should be differentiated from those who were subjected to enforced disappearance,” he told NOW.

He also said that the report in An-Nahar newspaper on Tuesday is not new, because “SOLIDE knows that these individuals were released before the 2009 parliamentary elections, starting April 22, but the official announcement only took place now.”

The Syrian delegation within the Lebanese-Syrian commission, which is in charge of following up on the cases of missing and detained persons, handed over to Lebanon a list of names of 23 Lebanese nationals recently freed from Syrian prisons, An-Nahar reported.

“For example, a man identified as Hassan Jaafar was released on April 22,” Aad noted.

He denied that any of the 23 freed nationals was considered missing and confirmed that all of them were tried.

“The news was published in a way that gave impression that those released were considered missing. However, SOLIDE included their names on the list of Lebanese detainees and missing in Syrian prisons, because Damascus did not acknowledge it had them,” said Aad.

Syria always denied the presence of any Lebanese detainees in its prisons, the head of SOLIDE said, “but then, it issued a list of 107 Lebanese nationals that were charged by the Syrian judicial authorities.”

“Some of the freed men telephoned me to inform me of their release,” Aad said, adding that they used to call him when they were in prison.