PRAGUE: Five Czechs found in Lebanon following their suspected kidnapping last July are in a Czech government plane on their way to Prague, Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said on Thursday.

In a statement (in Czech), the Foreign Ministry says they are in “satisfactory health,” and a special aircraft will be sent shortly to bring them home.

The five went missing when their abandoned vehicle was found near Kefraya in eastern Lebanon. They reappeared on Monday and were being held by Lebanese authorities.

The disappearance of the five, treated by Czech authorities as a suspected kidnapping, has been connected, by media in both countries and a security source, with the detention since 2014 of a Lebanese national in the Czech Republic.

A Czech court has ruled that three men including Lebanese citizen Ali Fayad, charged in the United States with an attempt to sell ground-to-air missiles, cocaine trafficking and other crimes, can be extradited to the United States.

A final ruling on the extradition is up to the Czech justice minister. The ministry said on Thursday no decision had been made nor was one expected in the coming days, reiterating its position over the past week.

The ministry did not not say whether a Lebanese driver, who was with the group, was also found.

The Czechs disappeared in the eastern Bekaa Valley last year.

Their empty car with documents and money was found in the Kefraya region.

A security operation was launched immediately amid fears the group was kidnapped.

Media reports at the time suggested that their disappearance may have been linked to the case of a Lebanese man held in the Czech Republic in connection with suspected arms smuggling.

In 2011, seven Estonian cyclists were abducted at gunpoint in the Bekaa Valley and released four months later.

Some areas of the Bekaa Valley, east of the capital Beirut, are notorious for lawlessness and drug trafficking.