BEIRUT, Lebanon (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Sheikh Abbas Zogheib, tasked by the Higher Shiite Council to follow up on the case of nine Lebanese hostages held in Syria, Sunday denied reports that the hostages’ families planned to escalate their protests by crippling air traffic at Beirut airport in response to the arrest of a family member.“The families [of the hostages] will not do anything. They will neither cut off the airport road, nor cripple the air traffic at the airport,” Zogheib told The Daily Star.His remarks came shortly after Adham Zogheib, a spokesman for the hostages’ families, was reported to have issued a one-hour ultimatum to the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch to release Mohammad Saleh, a son of the nine hostages in Syria, or else the families would take escalatory measures, such blocking the airport road and disrupting flights at the facility.Al-Jadeed TV station said Saleh was arrested by the ISF’s Information Branch after allegedly detecting his phone contacts with the kidnappers of the two Turkish pilots.Sheikh Zogheib said the case of Saleh was being handled calmly in order to secure his release./129
