Hezbollah members hold flags marking Resistance and Liberation Day, in Kfar Kila near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, May 25, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Aziz Taher

i24 News – The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, identified with Hezbollah, reported Sunday that more than 200 people had been in the Dahieh quarter of Beirut since the beginning of last September on suspicion of espionage.

Among the detainees are also foreign nationals, reportedly, and all suspects have been transferred to Lebanese state security forces.

According to the report, some of the additional detainees were arrested for drug trafficking or burglary offenses they committed in the homes of residents who had left their homes. The detainees were identified as Lebanese, Syrians, and citizens of other nationalities such as Americans, French, and Brazilians.

One of the US citizens previously worked as a US police officer and toured the Dahieh neighborhood with a Lebanese citizen. He said during his interrogation that he came to document himself touring in the war. Another French citizen was arrested filming who claimed he was a journalist – when his cell phone was checked, it turned out that he had filmed a number of buildings in the Dahieh.

The report also alleged that more than 50 Syrians were arrested, some of whom were associated with opposition organizations in their country and made use of foreign citizenships they possessed to land in Beirut and photograph buildings associated with Hezbollah in Dahieh.