The Earth-Times Sunday 27th April 2008 and Gulf-Times Monday 28th April 2008
BEIRUT: Karim Pakzad, a French Socialist Official representing the French Socialist Party, who was attending a two-day Socialist International Conference in Beirut, and who only wanted to see the capital city of Lebanon at the end of the meeting, was blindfolded, whisked away to an unidentified location, detained and kept isolated for hours, and later questioned or interrogated by members of the Lebanese Shiite Hezballah movement near Beirut's International Airport. Karim Pakzad had been taking pictures of a mosque and Hezballah posters on the road leading to Beirut International Airport when he was detained along with a companion and interrogated for hours before they were both released. His captors took away his cell-phone, his wallet, and his medicine. A Hezbollah official actually confirmed and acknowledged the incident, saying he had been detained and interrogated by the group because he was taking pictures near the house of a Hezbollah Official, and without prior permission from Hezballah’s Press Office.
Lebanon is currently divided between the anti-Syrian governing majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition. The country has been without a president since November 23 because of the political deadlock between the two sides.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's Shiite House speaker Nabih Beriberi Berri, a close ally of Hezballah on Saturday gave 13th May as the next date for parliament to convene to elect a new president, and which he will postpone again upon orders from Syria and Iran.