BAALBEK, Lebanon: Police detained a man in the Bekaa who claimed to be a Syrian Army defector after he was found carrying a fake ID and was alleged to have carried out a kidnapping, security sources said Friday.

A security source told The Daily Star that Mohammad Hasan Tlas presented forged identification documents when he was stopped at an Internal Security Forces checkpoint in the city of Zahle Thursday. The Syrian man was a passenger in an old Mercedes-benz with three other individuals, two from the Bekaa village of Arsal.

Tlas said he was seeking political asylum and protection.

The ISF detained Tlas for entering Lebanon illegally, and investigations later suggested he had kidnapped a woman from a southern village and married her. It was not clear whether the woman consented to the marriage.

The source told The Daily Star that Tlas had been transported to Beirut, so that General Security could complete its investigation and refer him to the judiciary.