BEIRUT: The brother of one of the 25 Lebanese servicemen being held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front voiced Monday his objection to the make-up of the committee representing the families of the captives.
In a statement released to the press, Nizam Mogheit, brother of captive serviceman Ibrahim Mogheit, said that the “committee doesn’t represent all the families and we will not recognize it.”
The committee's spokesperson Hussein Youssef said Mogheit's objection targets the inclusion of two human rights activists Khalil Ahmad Chedad and Ali Aqil Khalil in the committee representing the families.
“They are not one of the families and he didn’t accept them speaking in our name,” he said, adding that Mogheit would be running a correction to his previous statement.
Youssef confirmed that the families remain a cohesive bloc, noting that measures will be taken to resolve Mogheit’s grievances.
Calls to Mogheit’s cell phone went unanswered.
The spokesperson said that the families would be holding a meeting Tuesday to discuss discharging Chedad and Khalil from the committee.
Youssef said that it was “very likely” that the two would be removed since the committee is insistent on maintaining the cohesiveness of its ranks.
Mogheit’s statement came as a reaction to comments made by Chedad after a meeting with the head of the Higher Shiite Council, Sheikh Abdel Amir Kabalan Monday. In a statement released after the meeting, Chedad claimed that he was a representative of the families and that his visit falls in line with the family’s tour of political and religious figures.
Similarly, Khalil also issued a statement Sunday in which he violated the family’s pledge to keep negotiation developments secret. In his comments, Khalil claimed that the captors had pledged to stop killing and threatening the captives and alleged that the kidnappers had also tempered their demands.
The spokesperson said that he could neither confirm nor deny the claims given the absence of evidence to support them.
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