REPORT: Five Czechs head home from Lebanon as Prague frees 2 Lebanese

Five Czechs who surfaced in Lebanon this week after their suspected kidnapping last July left for home on Thursday as their government freed two Lebanese nationals who had been held on an extradition request by the United States. 

 

Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said a plane with the Czechs on board had left Beirut. Czech officials declined to comment initially on whether their release amounted to a swap for the Lebanese detainees. 

 

The Czechs were reported missing after their abandoned vehicle was found near Kefraya in eastern Lebanon in July last year. On Monday, Lebanese authorities announced that the five had been found and held them until Thursday.

 

The disappearance of the five, treated by Czech authorities as a likely kidnapping, was connected by media in both countries and a security source with the detention since 2014 of Lebanese nationals Khaled Merebi and Ali Fayad in the Czech Republic. 

 

A Czech court ruled earlier that three men including the two Lebanese, charged in the United States with an attempt to sell ground-to-air missiles, cocaine trafficking and other crimes, could be extradited to the United States.

 

The final decision, however, was up to Justice Minister Robert Pelikan and he ruled on Thursday that the two would not be extradited. "The Prague City Court ruled that Mr Fayad and Mr Merebi will be released from custody because the justice minister decided their extradition for prosecution in the United States will not be allowed," a court spokeswoman told Reuters. 

 

There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials. The status of the third man sought by U.S. authorities was unclear.

 

A spokeswoman for the justice minister said the ministry would comment later on Thursday.

 

U.S. authorities suspected the three Lebanese men of trying to sell weapons to U.S. agents pretending to be linked to Colombian guerrilla group FARC. Czech and Lebanese media reported Fayad was a Lebanese intelligence agent. 

 

A Lebanese security source told Reuters this week Fayad had also acted as an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister, and that there was a demand he be freed in return for the release of the Czechs. 

 

Fayad's brother was a driver for the five Czechs in Lebanon and went missing at the same time they did. Fayad's lawyer was among the missing Czechs. Czech media said a Czech intelligence officer was also with the group.