Good news for Canadian Hostage

[Scoobie Newbie]

http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/2004/04/16/hostage_iraq040416

Canadian hostage released by Iraqi kidnappers
Last Updated Fri, 16 Apr 2004 19:50:30 EDT
BAGHDAD - Iraqi kidnappers have released Canadian hostage Fadi Fadel, taking him to the offices of radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Fadi Ihsan Fadel 
Fadel, a 33-year-old Montreal man, was abducted on April 7 while working for the International Rescue Committee, a New York-based non-governmental organization.

Prime Minister Paul Martin confirmed his release on Friday, saying Fadel is "safe and sound," and that he'd spoken with his family in Montreal.

"I just told them how happy I was," said Martin on his way to deliver a speech at the Empire Club.

Martin said he would be dropping in on the Fadel family.


Reports say that al-Sadr appealed Friday for the release of all hostages from countries that are not involved in the occupation of Iraq.

The cleric has been at the centre of rising violence in Najaf in southern Iraq. The U.S. has vowed to capture or kill him.

Other hostages released, more taken

There are also reports that three Czech hostages in Iraq were freed Friday. The three journalists went missing on April 11.

But with the releases, there were reports of new kidnappings.

Iraqis disguised as police officers abducted a businessman from the United Arab Emirates, taking him from his hotel in Basra, said police chief Col. Khalaf al-Maleki.

Earlier reports said the man was from the U.S. The confusion was caused by U.S. stamps on his passport

In Denmark, public television is reporting that a Danish man working on a sewage project in Iraq was kidnapped near the city of Basra. Denmark supported the U.S.-led war and has roughly 400 troops in Iraq.

The Chinese Embassy confirmed a Chinese citizen kidnapped on Wednesday is at the embassy in Baghdad.

Earlier in the week, seven Chinese men were released by their Iraqi captors.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says the government has no information about the fate of two Japanese citizens believed abducted. The two journalists disappeared on Wednesday.

 

[girlfiredup]

Fadel says he was beaten and burned in Iraq

CTV.ca News Staff

Describing the experience of being held captive in Iraq, freed Canadian hostage Fadi Fadel says he was kicked, beaten and burned with cigarettes by his abductors.

Fadel arrived in Amman, Jordan on Saturday, after being released Friday to the office of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf the day before.

"The first few days were quite horrible to live through," Fadel said in a print interview with the Toronto Star on Sunday.

Fadel said his torture was brutal, although it never drew blood. Instead, he‘s left with about 20 cigarette burns and bruises about his body.

"They threatened to kill me," he said, explaining how his captors tried to coerce a false videotaped confession.

"They were terrorizing me at gunpoint trying to get me to say I was co-operating with Israel... Then they wanted me to say I was working with the Americans. Then to say that I worked for Spaniards."

Fadel says he never caved, and that a videotape aired on Arab television was not the confession it appeared to be. He says the audio was doctored to make it appear he was admitting to being an Israeli spy.

The 33-year-old Syrian born Canadian is expected to return to Montreal on Tuesday night.

His family had been on edge since April 8, when Fadel was captured by local militia in Najaf, alongside Nabil Razouk, 30, an Arab from East Jerusalem.

There is no information concerning the whereabouts of Razouk.

Being Canadian a key

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham described Fadel as "a Canadian who‘s been willing to risk his life for others" doing humanitarian work for the young people of Iraq.

"We‘re tremendously relieved he‘s going to be reunited with his family."

Fadel had been working for the UNICEF-funded humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee.

His captors accused him and Razouk of being Israeli spies, according to reports last week on Iranian television. The report said they were being held by a group called Ansar a-Din.

It is unclear exactly why Fadel was released, but CTV News has learned his captors were only convinced he was Canadian when they saw a photocopy of his passport Friday.