A senior Lebanese security source said Lebanese military intelligence is questioning Syrian national Ahmad Dunya and examining the origins of funds seized in his possession and their presumed destinations, stopping short of saying they were intended to finance fighters as part of a plot to destabilize Syria’s newly installed leadership.
The source said Dunya is the only person still in custody from a group detained on suspicion of illegal activities. Investigators decided to keep him under questioning to determine how the funds were being used.
The amounts involved, the source said, are large enough to raise suspicion but too small to suggest large-scale financing aimed at threatening the new leadership in Syria.
Rejecting what he described as rushing to hasty conclusions, the source said the investigation is proceeding in the right direction. He also denied that Lebanon had received from Syrian authorities a list of 200 former regime officials allegedly involved in a similar plot.
He said tens of thousands of supporters of the former regime entered Lebanon after the collapse of the government, but there was no indication that senior former officials were among them.
Reuters cited two security sources and two of Dunya’s former partners as saying he was arrested earlier this week in Lebanon.
However, the Lebanese judiciary denied being informed of such an arrest. Two judicial sources involved in detentions and in coordination with Lebanese security agencies told Asharq Al-Awsat that the security services had not informed them of an incident of this kind.
Reuters also quoted two Lebanese security sources and two of Dunya’s former partners as confirming his detention. The security sources did not specify the charges against him or whether he would be handed over to Syria.
About a month ago, Reuters published an investigation detailing separate plans by aides of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to finance potential Alawite armed groups in Lebanon and along the Syrian coast through financial intermediaries.
The Reuters investigation said Dunya was one of those intermediaries and had transferred funds from billionaire Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin, who is now living in exile in Moscow with the former Syrian ruler, to potential fighters in Lebanon and Syria.
A former partner of Dunya and a Syrian figure close to Makhlouf confirmed that Dunya was a key financial intermediary and that he had been detained in Lebanon.
The sources said Dunya managed extensive financial records, including payroll lists and receipts. They added that in recent months, he had been skimming a portion of Makhlouf’s transfers for himself.
