Dr. Saleh al-Shall , the medical director of Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Baalbek who was kidnapped on Tuesday Baalbek’s town of Douris, was freed Friday at midnight in Baalbek’s town of Douris , National News Agency reported on Saturday.
Dr. Shall was reportedly abducted from his orchard which is situated on the outskirts of Lebanon’s eastern mountain range, the reports added.
The doctor said the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $500 thousand to free him and that he told them that he does not have the money.
He was released without paying a ransom, according to NNA.
“He was not just any doctor, he was everyone’s doctor,” one man told LBCI television after he was abducted . “He has been treating Baalbek for 45 years.”
An eyewitness said that several four-wheel-drive vehicles and a pickup truck suspected to be carrying the doctor were seen en route to the town of Brital.
Maya, Saleh’s daughter, told reporters that her father ” is a cardiologist who has been serving the residents of Baalbek and the northern Bekaa for the past 50 years.”
Maya urged the Lebanese Order of Physicians (LOP) to use its influence to free her dad
“We don’t know anything about him until this moment,” she said.
On Thursday his vehicle was found burned-out in the outskirts of Bekaa’s town of al-Tibeh.
Grateful
“I’ve been put through a traumatizing experience in the past couple of days, an experience that nonetheless reaffirmed my trust in the city of Baalbek and its valiant residents,” Shall said in the statement carried by the National News Agency.
Baalbek residents had held several protests denouncing the doctor’s early Tuesday kidnapping.
Shall also condemned the “heinous” practice of abduction that was being led by local gangs against innocent citizens.
The kidnappers demanded $500,000 in exchange for his release, but he told them that he doesn’t have that amount of cash and said nobody paid the ransom.
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