Despite the efforts made by the Ministry of Public Security in Costa Rica the request for the immediate deportation of Lebanese Ziad Akl after he was released from preventive imprisonment last week by the Pavas Criminal Court was denied. The same court who set him free is preventing this from happening by accepting a request of temporary permanence in the country presented by Akl’s defense attorney.

“Despite the efforts of the Minister of Public Security, Gustavo Mata, to deport Akl from the country a foreigner suspicious of strong links with organized crime, this will not happen.
An order by the Pavas Criminal Court indicates that he must be given a 6 month permit to remain in the country and face the criminal process pending in the country”, stated the Ministry of Security through a press release.

Minister Mata considers that Akl should then be put back in preventive custody until that trial date.

Currently Akl is detained by Migration (at the request of Mata) since his release from preventive prison at the Foreigners’ Apprehension Center in Hatillo.

Akl has an irregular migratory condition and police intelligence considers him as a dangerous man.

Ziad Akl is the brother of Elias Akl, the Lebanese man who was killed outside a private school in Guachipelin, Escazu, back in March 2017, and had been in preventive custody on separate charges of attempted murder, extortion and kidnap after being arrested trying to flee the country at the Juan Santamaria International Airport, just hours after his brother had been killed.

The Akl brothers apparently had a money-lending organization which they ran in a thug-like manner, threatening debtors, holding them against their will and using violence to get them to pay.

“I am concerned that setting this man free will generate more violence in the country, since we can not discard that another criminal group may take a radical position that could eventually affect innocent third parties”, concluded Mata.