Lebanese Man first to Sue Syrian Jailers

A Lebanese man has filed an unprecedented lawsuit against five Syrians, including four officers, that he said kidnapped, tortured and jailed him in Syria, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday.

Elias Tanios was kidnapped from Lebanon by Syrian soldiers in 1992 and taken to Syria where he was held in jail until his release in 2000, Sleiman Labbous said.

“Two days ago he filed a suit in a Beirut court against four  officers responsible for his detention and his torture during his years in jail,” the lawyer said.

Tanios, a former member of the Lebanese security services, also filed a suit against a Syrian man, who also holds Lebanese nationality, who allegedly “denounced him.”

The attorney refused to give a motive for the arrest and detention of his client but insisted that he was “innocent.”

The suit is the first of its kind to be filed against Syrian authorities by a Lebanese once held in Syria – which ruled Lebanon politically and military for nearly three decades until April 2005.