Cell Arrested for Monitoring Grand Serail, Military Outposts and Embassies
Security forces have arrested an Iranian clergyman, his foreign wife and two other Lebanese people on charges of monitoring the Grand Serail, several embassies and military outposts.
The four were arrested early in the week in a black Rav-4 SUV at the Dahr al-Baidar junction on the main highway leading to Syria across the Bekaa Valley.
The daily al-Balad did not identify "the foreign clergyman" and other detained suspects, but security sources said he is the Imam of a Bekaa Valley town. His wife is a Tanzanian national who also holds a Norwegian passport.
The two other apprehended suspects are a Lebanese man and his mother who are from the same Bekaa town where the clergyman operates.
The sources said the four had been "tailed for over two weeks during which they were taking pictures and footage of several official, military and diplomatic institutions."
Al-Balad said security forces found with the suspects "detailed pictures of the Grand Serail focusing on entrances to the compound and guard outposts."
It said members of the "network live in a town near Baalbek," and army units were carrying out house raids in the Bekaa Valley.