A 42-year-old French man of Lebanese origin has filed suit in the French courts claiming he was kidnapped and tortured for 11 days last year by the Syrian authorities. Charles Farhat, a shopkeeper of Lebanese origin from the Paris suburb of Gennevilliers, told AFP that he was arrested at the border between Lebanon and Syria in September and taken to a prison in Damascus. "They told me: Forget about France. We're taking you to Centre 235. It's serious," he said.Farhat said he was forced to share a cell of a few meters square with around 40 other prisoners, and that he suffered beatings and interrogations. "They kept asking me about my previous visits to Syria - even though it was my first time there. They also wanted to know how I got my French passport," he said.
Farhat was freed without explanation after 11 days. He has filed suit "against persons unknown" in the French courts for "breach of individual freedom, kidnap and imprisonment, torture and acts of barbarity."