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Hostages freed after 'conversion'
MILITANTS in the Gaza Strip released two kidnapped journalists from the American Fox News Channel today after the men appeared on a videotape saying they had converted to Islam, Fox said.Fox said correspondent Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American, and New Zealand-born cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, were in a hotel in the Palestinian coastal strip. They hugged colleagues inside the hotel lobby before running up the stairs to a higher floor, Fox News footage showed. "Our heroes are home," Fox anchorman Shepard Smith said in a live broadcast from New York. The two reporters were seized on August 14 by a previously unknown group called the In a videotape released earlier, Centanni and Wiig were shown separately sitting cross-legged, reading statements announcing that they had converted to Islam. At times in the video they were wearing long Muslim robes. "I changed my name to Khaled. I have embraced Islam and say the word Allah," Centanni said. Wiig called on leaders of the West to stop "hiding behind the 'I don't negotiate with terrorists' myth". The Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the kidnapping and had warned the United States to free Muslim prisoners to prevent the two captives facing unspecified consequences. That deadline expired on Saturday. The United States had said it would not make "concessions to terrorists". Palestinian officials had earlier expressed optimism the men would be freed soon. A separate statement from the captors had said the two journalists had to choose either Islam, a tax imposed on non-Muslims to be paid to a Muslim ruler, or war. "They chose Islam and that is a gift God gives those whom he chooses," the statement said. Posted by: tipper 2006-08-27 |
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