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| Southeast Asia | ||
| Kidnapped Italian Priest Freed by Philippine Gunmen: Prodi | ||
| 2007-07-20 | ||
A Roman Catholic priest kidnapped in the southern Philippines last month has been freed, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said yesterday.
Bossi’s sister, Pinuccia Bossi, told Sky TG24 that she had just spoken to her brother. “He’s good and he’s coming home,” she said. Pope Benedict XVI said last week that he was praying daily for Bossi. The release came as a surprise since officials in Italy and the Philippines had said as recently as last week that they did not even know who was behind the kidnapping. There was not even a hint from Philippine officials of Bossi’s fate yesterday. Bossi, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was taken at gunpoint on June 10 near his church in the coastal town of Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay province, after holding mass with his congregation. Philippine authorities have tagged the gang of Akiddin Abdusallam, described as a “rogue leader” of the MILF, as the group that kidnapped Bossi, the third PIME member to be abducted in the southern Philippines in the last nine years. Immediately after the abduction, Philippine government forces teamed up with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in searching for the priest. But after weeks without any positive result, Prodi sent lawmaker Margherita Boniver as her special envoy to the Philippines to work for Bossi’s freedom.
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| Posted by:Fred |