Beirut airport security employees released

Beirut: Two alleged suspects working at the Rafik Hariri International Airport arrested last weekend for contacting “terrorist groups” were released on Monday afternoon after military intelligence officers concluded they were innocent.

According to the National News Agency, two employees working for Middle East Airports Services SAL company (MEAS), a subsidiary of Lebanon’s national carrier Middle East Airlines, were interviewed by army intelligence officers who determined that the accusations were inaccurate.

Although reports claimed that one of them managed to smuggle a weapon onto airport premises, this proved not to be the case, and while the Public Works and Transportation Minister, Ghazi Zoaiter, said the arrests highlighted his team’s vigilance, some wondered whether this was fabricated to score a political goal.

Zoaiter boasted that the situation was “under control,” even if he admitted that the vital facility needed a secure perimeter fence and advanced baggage scanners.

On Tuesday, conditions at the airport were supposedly the first item on the cabinet’s agenda, though ongoing political disputes prevented a happy resolution. Zoaiter expected the cabinet to approve the necessary funding and dismissed sharp disagreements with the Minister of Interior Nouhad Al Mashnouq over this critical matter. No resolution of the matter was announced as Gulf News went to press.

In a statement issue by the Army Command, the two workers were cleared of all charges after “they were interrogated under the supervision of the relevant judicial authorities and eventually released [when] it was verified that they had no ties to any terrorist activities or groups.”