Interior Ministry Denies Woman Jailed for Several Days at Beirut Airport Basement

The interior ministry denied on Friday a report that a woman from an Arab country was arrested by “unofficial” security personnel and jailed at Rafik Hariri International Airport.

The denial came in response to an article published in pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat this week, claiming that the woman was kept for several days in a secret jail lying several stories below the ground at the facility.

The ministry statement said that Interior Minister Nuhad al-Mashnouq personally contacted Hussein Shabakshi, the writer of the article, asking him about the identity of the woman.

But Shabakshi, an opinion writer, refused to do so claiming the woman did not want to be identified, the statement said.

Al-Mashnouq told him that the article was not the appropriate way to deal with such a sensitive case, it said.

Shabakshi has alleged that Hizbullah members maintained a prison two stories below the ground in which they detained, interrogated and tortured people.

He said the woman, who was traveling from Beirut to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, was held by Hizbullah for 72 hours for questioning.

Shabakshi also claimed that the woman heard the screams of other people being tortured in prison cells in the same location.

Al-Mashnouq “asked the General Security and Internal Security Forces directorates, and airport security to immediately open an investigation into the incident … and inform the public opinion about their conclusions as soon as possible,” the ministry said.

“It has been revealed so far that the information published in the newspaper is not true,” the statement added.

Al-Mashnouq urged the daily to be accurate in publishing such information, particularly that the article did not mention any names or did not give a date as to when the alleged incident took place.

“The interior ministry and its agencies were and still are ready to assume full responsibility in following up the case, unveil all its details and take the legal measures if it was revealed that there were perpetrators,” the statement said.