Report: Video of Estonians is Not New

The video of the seven Estonian tourists that was uploaded on YouTube was most probably shot in the first days of the March 23 kidnapping in the eastern Bekaa valley, a security source told As Safir daily.

The source said in remarks published Friday that the video wasn’t shot in the past few days.

The video, which was uploaded on Wednesday, runs one minute and 47 seconds and shows each of the seven men in sportswear, who appeared unharmed, begging for help in English.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Thursday with Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, Army commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji, Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud and ISF’s head of the intelligence bureau, Col. Wissam al-Hassan, to discuss the issue.

The officials discussed the stage that the investigation has reached, the source said. He ruled out that the kidnappers belong to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

“There is a mystery that we are still trying to solve with a likelihood that the Estonians were taken out of Lebanon,” the sources added.