Mustafa Dirani was responsible for the capture, imprisonment and detention of navigator Ron Arad from October 1986 to May 1988. Although he claimed Arad was no longer in his custody, IDF intelligence believed he could provide information on Arad’s fate and could be used as leverage in future prisoner exchange negotiations. A Chief of Staff Reconnaissance unit abducted Dirani from his home in south Lebanon. Immediately upon his arrival in Israel he was interrogated and held in administrative detention for eight years to pressure Ron Arad’s captors to free him, but Dirani was released in 2004 as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Hezbollah.