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| Africa Horn | |
| UK hostage Judith Tebbutt freed in Somalia | |
| 2012-03-22 | |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] British hostage Judith Tebbutt, captured in Kenya over six months ago by gunnies who killed her husband, was released in central Somalia and flown out to Nairobi Wednesday, elders said. The Foreign Office in London confirmed the release, saying the "priority now is to get her to a place of safety."
"The British lady who was kidnapped from Kenya was just released," said Mahmoud Hirsi, an elder in the Addado region. "She is a free woman, but I cannot discuss the technical details of her release." Abdiwali Ahmed, a resident of Addado, said Tebbutt had left Somalia on a small airplane bound for the Kenyan capital Nairobi. "The plane had the hostage and three other people on board," he said. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 My Mom went to Kenya on vacation a few years back; absolutely loved it, and the people. Almost glad she's not alive now to see what has happened to it. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2012-03-22 18:50 |
| #3 Don't believe I'll be taking my vacation this year in Kenya. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-03-22 11:28 |
| #2 "Rick Blears of Save Our Seafarers, the global anti-Somali piracy campaign, said that 'any move at government level to ban the payment of ransoms to pirates, as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton proposes, would have a massively detrimental effect and put the lives of hostages at grave risk'." He would say that - probably onto a nice little earner, so long as the pirates stay in business. The same defence could have been used to try to prevent the Royal Navy from being ordered to force an end to the slave trade: 'slaves in transit will be killed if they can't be sold'; thus the problem would have been kept going indefinitely. What nonsense. Payment of ransoms is direct funding of criminal activity. Ransom payers should be prosecuted by whatever means possible, while hostage takers in lawless states should be given the option of releasing their captives unharmed, or face summary execution. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2012-03-22 05:42 |
| #1 Above link doesn't work for me. From the BBC: A British hostage has been freed in Somalia, six months after she was seized and her husband killed in Kenya. Judith Tebbutt, 56, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, was flown to Nairobi after her family paid the pirates a ransom for her release. Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman said the government would provide consular care in Nairobi. He said it did not pay ransoms and did not "facilitate concessions to hostage takers", but had met the family regularly to discuss the case.BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said a private security company had secured her release, not British officials. He said it was unclear how much money was involved, and revealing the amount was generally discouraged to avoid copy-cat gangs. Paying the ransom was not illegal because it was not known to be going to a terrorist organisation, he added. Rick Blears of Save Our Seafarers, the global anti-Somali piracy campaign, said that "any move at government level to ban the payment of ransoms to pirates, as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton proposes, would have a massively detrimental effect and put the lives of hostages at grave risk".. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-03-22 04:44 |