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2012-03-22 Africa Horn

UK hostage Judith Tebbutt freed in Somalia

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Posted by Fred 2012-03-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top
File under: al-Shabaab

#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|| 2012-03-22 04:44|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2012-03-22 05:42|| Front Page Top

#3 Don't believe I'll be taking my vacation this year in Kenya.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-03-22 11:28|| 2012-03-22 11:28|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2012-03-22 18:50|| Front Page Top

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