Kidnapped Pilgrims: We are Guests of Syrian Rebels, We Support Syrian People
Al-Jazeera television broadcast on Saturday a video of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria on May 22.
They announced: “We are the guests of the Syrian rebels and we support the Syrian people.”
The video, recorded on June 5 or 6, showed the 11 pilgrims seated in a room as each of them identified themselves to the camera.
One of the abductees, Abbas Shoaib condemned the recent Houla massacre in Syria that was committed at the hands of “oppressors”, voicing his support to the Syrian people.
He reassured that the pilgrims were all doing well, stressing that they were not at all pressured at gunpoint to make their remarks.
Addressing the Lebanese people, he stated: “Rise against oppression as the Syrian people did.”
At the end of the video, the abductors denied in a statement all remarks that had been made by alleged spokespeople for the group, except for the call on Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to apologize for his remarks on the kidnapping.
The kidnappers said that the “guests will be released after being handed over to the civil Syrian state, which will in turn examine their case at the new democratic parliament.”
The pilgrims were kidnapped in the Syrian city of Aleppo on May 22 as they were making their way back to Lebanon by land from a pilgrimage to Iran.
Their location remains unknown amid conflicting reports that they had entered Turkish territory.
No side has so far claimed responsibility for their abduction, but various sides had been accused of being behind the incident, including the Free Syrian Army, which has denied any involvement in the case.
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