Last 3 French Hostages Held in Lebanon Released

The last three French hostages held in Lebanon were released in Beirut today and handed over to Syrian officers, a French Embassy spokesman said.

Spokesman Francois Abi Saab said diplomats Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine and journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann were released at the Summerland Hotel in Muslim West Beirut.

They were whisked away by Syrian troops to an unknown destination.

In Paris, two television networks flashed news of the release at the end of their evening bulletins, quoting official sources in Paris.

A French Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed that all three hostages were in a safe place in Lebanon with “Monsieur Stefani,” the French emissary who negotiated their release.

Premier Jacques Chirac, informed of the news at a campaign rally said: “I’ve just been told that the three hostages have been handed over to an Interior Ministry representative.”

‘Atrocious Experience’

“I’m thinking now of the atrocious experience they have undergone, which they in no way deserved,” Chirac said to a wildly cheering Strasbourg political gathering.

The release, which only a few hours earlier had appeared next to impossible, comes just four days before France votes to elect a new president. It is expected to boost Chirac’s flagging chances of defeating incumbent Francois Mitterrand in Sunday’s ballot.

Security guards at the Summerland said two hostages arrived at the hotel in a Mercedes sedan and were met there by another car carrying a third Frenchman.

The three, who looked thin but clean-shaven, stepped out of their cars and embraced before they were whisked away in Syrian civilian cars.

Carton, 64, and Fontaine, 46, were seized in Beirut on March 22, 1985. Kauffmann, 45, was kidnaped a month later. They were held by the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad group.

19 Foreigners Still Missing

The three were the last Frenchmen held in Lebanon. Kidnapers said they had killed a fourth, Arabist researcher Michel Seurat, 38, but his body has not been found.

The release leaves 19 foreigners, including nine Americans, missing in Lebanon. The longest held is Terry A. Anderson, 40, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, who was kidnaped March 16, 1985.

The three Frenchmen gained freedom shortly after reports that French former secret agent Jean-Charles Marchiani arrived in Beirut this morning.

Marchiani, who secured the release of two French hostages in November, has visited Lebanon several times in the last few months leading up to the French presidential election.

A senior Muslim security source said Marchiani negotiated a deal with the kidnapers to release the three in return for $26.4 million but late last month the captors asked for an additional $1.8 million.

He said Iran, as part of the deal, demanded weapons and spare parts from France.