German journalist arrested in Beirut had feared he would be handed to Hezbollah
Paul Ronzheimer, briefly detained after speaking to an Israeli outlet from Lebanon, says he found out after his release that the Iran-backed terror group was indeed looking for him
A German correspondent who was arrested in Beirut last month by Lebanese authorities after giving an interview to an Israeli broadcaster told a different Israeli outlet Saturday that he feared Lebanese authorities would hand him and a colleague over to Hezbollah.
Bild deputy editor-in-chief and correspondent Paul Ronzheimer was interviewed by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster on September 27, the day Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The following morning, he and his cameraman were arrested by Lebanese authorities and were only released after the German embassy intervened.
Ronzheimer, who has since left Lebanon, told Channel 12 that he had accepted an offer to be interviewed by Israeli television because he “didn’t know that this was forbidden, and I believe in free press.” The interview may have been the first live broadcast from Beirut on Israeli television since the IDF withdrew from the Lebanese capital in 1982.
Lebanon has strict laws that prohibit its citizens from any contact with Israel, an enemy state, and sanction anything that could be considered “normalization.” It’s unclear, however, how the law applied to Ronzheimer, a German national.
According to Ronzheimer, the morning after the interview “the nightmare began” when five people knocked on his door saying they had routine questions for him and demanded he hand over his equipment — including his phone and cameras.
He and his cameraman were then taken to an interrogation facility, where he was questioned for two hours on his activities and the live broadcast. He maintained that he was unaware that giving such an interview was forbidden and said he had given interviews to various outlets.
Ronzheimer told Channel 12 that he and his cameraman were then handcuffed, blindfolded and transferred to another location, without being informed of where he was being taken.
At this point, he feared they were being handed over to Hezbollah, he said.
The correspondent said he was brought to a military facility outside Beirut, where he faced questions about how often he visits Israel and about his relationship with Israelis.
The interrogators knew he had interviewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several months ago, he added.
He did not realize he was still in the hands of Lebanese authorities and not Hezbollah until he and his cameraman were put in a cell and told they would only be able to see a prosecutor in the morning at the earliest.
According to Bild, Ronzheimer was released later that day thanks to the intervention of the German embassy.
Upon being released, he said he realized that Hezbollah had indeed sought him. The terror group was “sharing my picture on Hezbollah accounts… and they were looking for me,” he told Channel 12 news.
Hezbollah has a history of abducting Westerners, including reporters. Among them was AP journalist Terry Anderson, who was kidnapped by the group in 1985 and held captive for seven years.
“When I was in the car, [being driven] from one place to the other, being blindfolded and handcuffed…..I was thinking, you know, where are we going and what happens if Hezbollah takes us,” Ronzheimer told Channel 12.
Lebanese authorities did not officially comment on the incident involving Ronzheimer. According to some German reports, Lebanese officials claimed that Ronzheimer lacked required accreditation to report in the country, something he vociferously denied.
According to the Bild report, Ronzheimer decided to leave Lebanon following the ordeal. He noted that Hezbollah, which is seen by some as a state-within-a-state, hardly issues permits to journalists anymore.
For security reasons, Bild only reported on Ronzheimer’s arrest once he had left the country. He told Channel 12 that he and his crew were safe.
The correspondent has continued to report on the war, including speaking to German outlet Die Welt from Tel Aviv last week.
Ronzheimer had been in Lebanon to report on Israel’s military offensive against the Hezbollah terror group, which it launched last month to put an end to a year of cross-border fire and make it safe for displaced residents of northern Israel to return home.
The German foreign ministry has raised its crisis level for missions in Beirut, Ramallah and Tel Aviv amid the fighting, but its embassies have remained operational.
Reuters contributed to this report.