Conflict Incident Report

BEIRUT: Demonstrators rallied in Beirut's Riad al-Solh square on Tuesday in solidarity with Lebanese cameraman Samir Kassab, four years after he went missing in Syria. Protesters called on the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to press for Kassab’s release holding pictures of the abducted cameraman. They were joined by Information Minister Melhem Riachi and MP Atef Majdalani outside the ESCWA headquarters. Kassab was kidnapped four years ago along with his Mauritanian Sky News colleagues Ishak Moctar and a Syrian driver while working near Aleppo on assignment. Riachi pledged that the Lebanese government would continue to work on the release of Kassab. He said that "Kassab was [merely] practicing our right to know the truth." Samir's brother Georges Kassab,, who led the demonstration, handed ESCWA Secretary of the Commission Karim Khalil a letter directed to Guterres to press the release of Samir. The rally saw the participation of a number of journalists, cameramen and activists.