Police Free Kidnapped Boy, Arrest Abductors in Aley
A 14-year-old student who was kidnapped for a $1.5 million ransom returned to his parents on Thursday after security forces arrested his kidnappers and freed the boy.
Police managed to free Ayman Jihad al-Khansa at dawn and arrested the four kidnappers at an apartment in Dhour Aley, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said during a press conference.
He also hoped that kidnapped Middle East Airlines engineer Joseph Sader would return to his family.
Voice of Lebanon radio station identified the head of the network as Abdul Nasser Hassan Miqdad.
In an interview with VDL, Baroud lauded the efforts of security forces to win the boy”s release despite their limited capabilities.
A security official said investigators on Wednesday arrested three of the kidnappers who led them at dawn on Thursday to the boy and the fourth suspect.
The boy”s father Jihad Khansa, a businessman who deals in cars and automotive spare parts, told Agence France Presse that he did not know why his son was targeted.
Al-Khansa was kidnapped on Monday while waiting for a school bus outside his house in Beirut”s Ghobeiri – airport highway district.
The boy”s father, who was not aware that his son was kidnapped, received a call from a payphone in the eastern city of Baalbek, demanding a $1.5 million ransom.
On Tuesday, the kidnappers called the father again probably from the area of Jdeideh and reiterated their demands.