The following are summaries of today's major stories published in the
Arabic press. LBCI does not edit press digest articles for content, giving
English-language readers insight into the various views expressed in newspapers
across the Arab world.
Sources close to the case of
the Lebanese hostages in Syria revealed that “the Turkish detainee Abdel Baset
Orslan, who was abducted by Saraya al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, was delivered last night to the Director General of the General
Security Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim in order to be handed over to the Turkish
authorities today”. It was reported that an agreement was reached between Gen.
Ibrahim and Turkish authorities in order to resolve and close this case
completely.
“Five
of the Lebanese hostages in Syria will be freed during the upcoming hours in
exchange for the Turkish national”,
Al-Joumhouria Daily quoted the same sources
as saying.
In this context, the sources declared that “Gen.
Ibrahim will be heading for Turkey during the next few hours to finalize the
process of releasing the five hostages”, denying that Saraya al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi has
received any of the hostages. It was also reported that “a Turkish mediator is
expected to arrive to Beirut within a day, with a list of the names of the
hostages to be released”.
The sources confirmed that “the detainee Abbas
Choueib will not be among those who are expected to be freed”, adding that he
may be among the last ones to be released in this process.
An-Nahar Newspaper quoted security sources as saying that the file of
General Jamil Sayyed was handed over yesterday afternoon to Judge Saqr Saqr,
noting that the file is well documented, after the DNA tests have confirmed the
presence of Sayyed with Samaha in the car which transported the explosives from
Damascus.
The sources pointed that the laboratories of the Internal Security Forces
have performed their duties, allowing the case to be delivered to Judge Saqr
who will be referring it in turn to Judge Abou Ghayda.
“Sayyed might say that he was in the car but did not know that it was transporting
explosives, but the fact that he was in the car was proven, allowing the Information
branch to make its move yesterday”, the sources explained.
Western diplomatic
sources told
Al-Mustaqbal Daily that the visit of the United States Deputy
Secretary of the Treasury, Neal S.
Wolin, to Beirut aims at exploring what the Lebanese banks have applied
from the measures related to the sanctions imposed on Syria and Iran. The visit
which will start today, also aims at urging the Lebanese authorities to commit
to the sanctions.
Al-Akhbar Daily reported
that the judicial committee in charge of studying the requests for the telecom
data is expected to issue a decision prohibiting the delivery of the complete data
to the security apparatuses starting today.
This decision limits the access
to the data to the time and place related to the crime and the suspect only.
In this context, the
committee sources told the daily that the aforementioned decision comes after
the Lebanese judicial delegation visited France and reviewed the approach adopted
by French officials to deal with such case according the law and the
constitution.