A man was arrested in the Bekaa region for faking his own kidnapping, after his son reported receiving a phone call from a Syrian number asking for ransom, according to an Internal Security Forces statement Sunday.
It was the second arrest over a faked kidnapping in the Bekaa to be reported by the ISF this weekend.
According to the statement, a Lebanese national identified as M.I. contacted authorities Friday, to report the alleged kidnapping of his father, also identified by the initials M.I.
According to M.I.’s account, his father left the Bekaa town of Riyaq at 6 p.m. on April 8, heading to Hermel with LL17 million ($11,228) to buy livestock.
M.I. said he lost contact with his father the next day, before receiving a call from a Syrian number on April 10, asking $60,000 in ransom.
When the ISF Information Division investigated the matter, they suspected the man did not go to Hermel alone, like his son had claimed. Instead, they found he was accompanied by his brother-in-law - Lebanese national I.F., born in 1987 - to Mazraat al-Chouf.
ISF arrested the elder M.I., who admitted to fabricating his own kidnapping to avoid paying off debts. I.F. was also arrested, and had admitted to dropping off his brother-in-law in Mazraat al-Chouf and not telling anyone of his whereabouts, according to the statement.
It was not immediately clear from the statement whether the suspect’s son had prior knowledge of the plan.
The arrest was the second of its kind in less than 24 hours in the Bekaa region. The ISF Saturday reported the arrest of a Palestinian man who faked his own kidnapping to avoid paying off debts.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
