BEIRUT: Liban Lait CEO Ahmad Zeidan, who was kidnapped in the Bekaa Valley Wednesday has been released after four days in captivity.

The 60-year-old CEO of the country’s largest dairy farm was taken by four masked gunmen as he was traveling with his driver, Wissam Wafiq Habbal, in a black Volkswagen in the Bekaa’s Talia Valley. The kidnapping took place some 200 meters from the Liban Lait factory.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati tweeted in response to the news Sunday morning.

“I was truly relieved to learn [from] Lebanese Army, at 02:15am last [night], the [good] news of the release of formerly kidnapped Lebanese citizen,” he tweeted.

A source told The Daily Star that Habbal, Zeidan’s driver, had reported that the abductors were “highly professional and knew when and where Zeidan would drive by to his factory,” ant it was believed that they were seeking a ransom.

However, LBC News reported Sunday that Zeidan was freed without a ransom, after the abductors backed down following negotiations in which Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri took a key role.

The Bekaa has seen a spike in crime in recent years, including kidnappings carried out by crime rings. Seven Estonian cyclists were abducted in March and were freed on an empty Bekaa road after being held for four months in captivity.

A number of Syrian dissidents who fled to Lebanon in the past nine months are suspected to have been kidnapped.