Tags
A German woman who was kidnapped in Syria last year while she was pregnant has been freed along with her baby, the German foreign ministry has said.
The pair were released on Wednesday and had safely crossed the border into Turkey, a ministry spokeswoman said, declining to name the woman.
‘The German national and her child who was born in captivity are doing well under the circumstances,’ she said, adding that they were now safely in the care of consular officers and German police.
The German embassy in Ankara was preparing their journey home.
The German government is ‘relieved about the positive outcome of this case given the extraordinarily difficult situation in Syria,’ the spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The ministry gave no further details.
German media have identified the woman as a freelance journalist who travelled to Syria on the promise of getting exclusive information.
Focus magazine reported earlier this year that the 27-year-old had gone missing in October 2015, apparently kidnapped by militants from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front who were demanding a five-million-euro ($5.6-million) ransom.
The weekly said she gave birth in December.
But members of the jihadist group, which is now known as Fateh al-Sham, said in a statement on Wednesday that they had nothing to do with the kidnapping and had in fact been the ones to free the woman and her baby, according to the SITE intelligence group.
The German government says it does not pay ransom demands for hostages.
The foreign ministry spokeswoman said German officials had made ‘considerable efforts to resolve the case’.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
TECHNOLOGY Some 60mn primary-school-age children have no access to formal education
CULTURE Lekhwiya’s El Arabi scores the equaliser after Tresor is sent off; Tabata, al-Harazi score for QSL champions
ARABIA The Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohamed Abdul Majid Qubati, yesterday expressed hope that the 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen declared by the Command of Coalition Forces on Saturday will be maintained in order to lift the siege imposed on Taz City and ease the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged
ARABIA Some 200 teachers from schools across the country attended Qatar Museum’s (QM) first ever Teachers Council at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) yesterday.
ARABIA The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) of Qatar and the Indonesian Supreme Court (SCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial co-operation, it was announced yesterday.
ECONOMY Sri Lanka is keen on importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar as part of government policy to shift to clean energy, Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem has said.
