German hostage freed in Iraq
Thursday, 12 July 2007
BERLIN, July 11 (AFP): A German woman held hostage in Iraq since early February has been freed but her son remains in the hands of the kidnappers, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday "Hannelore Krause's hostage ordeal has come to an end after 155 days. We are relieved and share in the joy of the family," Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin.
But he added: "The dire uncertainty about her son, who is still in captivity, remains."
Krause, 62, in an interview broadcast on Al-Arabiya television on Wednesday urged Germany to heed the kidnappers' call to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, saying her son's life was at stake
I ask Germany to pull its troops out of Afghanistan. If it fails to do so, then my son will be slaughtered," she said.
"I want to reassert to peaceful Muslims that Germans are present in land which is not their own."
Krause and her 20-year-old Sinan were seized from her house in Baghdad on February 6 by members of a militant Islamist group called the Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions).
The kidnappers in March threatened to execute both mother and son within 10 days unless Germany withdrew from Afghanistan.
It later renewed the ultimatum and in April released a video in which a frail-looking Krause was shown crying, begging for help in German and saying she longed to be reunited with her husband.
"I'm so afraid and we only have a few days left," she said as she clutched her son's arm.
Steinmeier said Krause was freed on Tuesday afternoon, but declined to give details of the circumstances of her release for fear it could jeopardize her son. He said the government was doing "everything in our power" to ensure he was released unharmed.
Krause, who is married to an Iraqi doctor, Mohamed Al Tornachi, had settled in Iraq some 40 years ago and taken an Iraqi name, Um Mazin.
Their son worked at the Iraqi foreign ministry and was married a few months before the kidnapping.
In a video message to the kidnappers in March, Tornachi asked the group to understand that the family was powerless to influence political decisions.
German President Horst Koehler also pleaded for the hostages' safe release in a video message broadcast on German and Arab television.
But he added: "The dire uncertainty about her son, who is still in captivity, remains."
Krause, 62, in an interview broadcast on Al-Arabiya television on Wednesday urged Germany to heed the kidnappers' call to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, saying her son's life was at stake
I ask Germany to pull its troops out of Afghanistan. If it fails to do so, then my son will be slaughtered," she said.
"I want to reassert to peaceful Muslims that Germans are present in land which is not their own."
Krause and her 20-year-old Sinan were seized from her house in Baghdad on February 6 by members of a militant Islamist group called the Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions).
The kidnappers in March threatened to execute both mother and son within 10 days unless Germany withdrew from Afghanistan.
It later renewed the ultimatum and in April released a video in which a frail-looking Krause was shown crying, begging for help in German and saying she longed to be reunited with her husband.
"I'm so afraid and we only have a few days left," she said as she clutched her son's arm.
Steinmeier said Krause was freed on Tuesday afternoon, but declined to give details of the circumstances of her release for fear it could jeopardize her son. He said the government was doing "everything in our power" to ensure he was released unharmed.
Krause, who is married to an Iraqi doctor, Mohamed Al Tornachi, had settled in Iraq some 40 years ago and taken an Iraqi name, Um Mazin.
Their son worked at the Iraqi foreign ministry and was married a few months before the kidnapping.
In a video message to the kidnappers in March, Tornachi asked the group to understand that the family was powerless to influence political decisions.
German President Horst Koehler also pleaded for the hostages' safe release in a video message broadcast on German and Arab television.