France denies paying Al-Qaeda ransom
FRANCE: France denied Wednesday that it had paid a ransom to
ensure the release of one of its citizens held by Al-Qaeda, while three
Spanish and two Italian hostages remain held by the militants.
Pierre Camatte was released on Tuesday in Mali after the north
African country, a former French colony, agreed to release four Islamic
militants.
The release of the prisoners — two Algerians, a Mauritanian and a
Burkinabe — outraged Algiers and Mauritania, which had planned to try
them on terror charges and recalled their ambassadors from Mali in
protest.
“The position of the French authorities has not changed — we do not
pay ransoms,” French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told
reporters.
France has a reputation in international security circles of
routinely paying to ensure the freedom of nationals kidnapped by
criminal and militant groups, but the Government always denies having
done so.
Valero did not directly address the complaints from Algeria and
Mauritania, but said France remains “totally mobilised alongside the
countries of the region which are all confronted by the terrorist
threat.”
Camatte, a 61-year-old aid worker, was kidnapped on November 26 from
a hotel by Malians who passed him on to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM), the North African franchise of Osama Bin Laden’s militant
movement.
As well as Camatte, thought to have been hidden in the northern
Malian desert, AQIM has three Spanish hostages and an Italian couple,
kidnapped in neighbouring Mauritania within days of each other last
November. Paris, AFP |
