BEIRUT: Syrian activist Khalil Mahmoud Hassan said his detention by General Security over the weekend was politically motivated, while the authorities maintain that he was arrested for violating labor laws.  Hassan, 38, was released Monday after spending three days in custody.

Hassan says he received a call from General Security last week and was asked to report to its office in Metn’s Sadd al-Boushrieh to finalize his wife’s residency permit.

Hassan told The Daily Star he was warned that he would be taken in by force if he failed to report to the office. “They told me I needed to sign for the residency permit of my wife ... but the moment I got to the station, they handcuffed me and began questioning me,” said Hassan.

“When I was later taken to the detention center of General Security [in Beirut], I saw around 10 other Syrians who told me we would probably be deported to Syria,” he said.

“I don’t think it was a legal issue. I think my arrest was politically motivated,” Hassan added.

But General Security said Thursday that Hassan was arrested for violating the country’s Labor Law and laws regulating residency in the country.

“According to the agreement between the Lebanon represented by General Security and the UNHCR, Hassan is not allowed to work at all in the country,” General Security said in a statement.

According to the statement, Hassan is listed on the UNHCR’s refugees list and was running an electronics shop in Sadd al-Boushrieh along with his wife.

Hassan admitted that he works at his friend’s shop, but said his family has not received any assistance from the UNHCR.

“I don’t have a shop myself; the shop belongs to my friend,” Hassan said.

Hassan, who has been in the countrysince 2008 with his wife and daughter, says he is currently waiting the approval of the Norwegian government, which has pledged to give him and his family political asylum in Norway.

Since the start of the pro-democracy demonstrations in Syria 10 months ago, Hassan has taken part in several demonstrations in Lebanon in solidarity with the Syrian protesters and is a member of the Syrian Coordinating Committees of Lebanon.

Recent U.N. estimates say more than 5,000 people have been killed and thousands of others are missing in Syria as a result of the brutal crackdown by the Syrian regime.

Hassan, a staunch critic of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said he and three other Syrian dissidents held the first solidarity demonstration in front of the Syrian Embassy in Hamra in early April of last year. “That was a suicidal act ... we got attacked in front of the embassy and the Syrian regime gangs have known about our movement since then,” he said.

After three days of detention, Hassan was freed Monday afternoon, and according to a General Security statement Wednesday, he has been granted two months to correct his legal status.

“General Security will contact the UNHCR to speed up his [Hassan’s] paperwork and will work to transfer him to a third [party] country.”