US ‘dismayed’ by Czech release of two Lebanese wanted for arms trafficking

The US State Department said on Thursday that is was "dismayed" by the Czech Republic's release of two Lebanese citizens wanted by the US for suspected arms trafficking.

The release comes after five Czechs who had been missing and presumed kidnapped in Lebanon for five months arrived home on Thursday.

The disappearance of the five Czechs 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.

The United States said it was "dismayed" by the decision to release the two Lebanese, whom US authorities had been trying to extradite.

 

"I think I'd point back to what our embassy said. We're obviously dismayed by this decision. These men were indicted in US federal court for conspiring to kill officers, employees of the United States; conspiring to acquire, transfer and use anti-aircraft missiles; and conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization," State Department spokesman John Kirby told journalists at a briefing.

 

"The Prague High Court reviewed this case and agreed that they were extraditable to the United States and so their release, as I said, is of deep  concern to us. And certainly isn't going to help improve bilateral relations, that's for sure," he added.

Czech officials declined to comment on whether the Czechs were swapped for the Lebanese detainees. But Defense Minister Martin Stropnicky confirmed the connection in an interview with daily Hospodarske Noviny conducted before the men's release.

A Czech court ruled in December 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.

 

The final decision, however, was up to Justice Minister Robert Pelikan and he ruled on Thursday that the two would not be extradited.