Muslims Free Last 3 French Beirut Captives

Pro-Iranian Shia Muslim extremists released their last three French hostages in Beirut on Wednesday, just four days before the French presidential election, setting off waves of joyous excitement in France tempered by some suspicion over the timing.

The hostages, held for more than three years, were reportedly in poor health and barely able to walk. They were flown out of Beirut shortly after their release and were expected to reach Paris this morning. French officials plan to take them directly to a Paris-area hospital for two days of medical examination.

Premier Jacques Chirac, far behind President Francois Mitterrand in the electoral polls, announced the release at a political rally in Strasbourg while his supporters chanted, “We are going to win!”

It has been an open secret for several weeks that Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Chirac’s campaign strategist, has been trying to secure the release of the hostages before the voting Sunday. There was no certainty, however, that the release by the fundamentalist terrorist group known as Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War) would do much to change Chirac’s political fortunes, especially so late in the campaign.

The hostages, diplomats Marcel Carton, 64, and Marcel Fontaine, 46, and journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann, 45, were released by their captors near the Summerland Hotel in Muslim West Beirut. Syrian troops, who control that part of Beirut, escorted the hostages to the airport, where they took off in a private jet.

In a radio interview, Kauffmann called his release “a rebirth, because for three years I won’t say we lived, we survived.”

Carton said, “It’s the end of a nightmare--a nightmare that lasted three years and then some.” Both were interviewed by Roger Auque, a radio correspondent who was himself a hostage until released last November. French officials allowed him to board the plane.

The Syrians reportedly turned over the hostages to a “Monsieur Stefani,” the code name for former French intelligence agent Jean-Charles Marchiani, who has been serving as an emissary for his old friend Pasqua. Marchiani, a Corsican like Pasqua, also arranged the release of two other French hostages last November.

That release provoked a good deal of controversy, although more so in the United States and Britain than in France, because of the evident price paid for the release by the Chirac government.

The French government allowed an Iranian suspected of complicity in several bombings in Paris in 1986 to leave France, expelled several Iranian opponents of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and paid to the Khomeini regime a large installment on a loan made to France years ago by the late Shah of Iran.

No Word on Any Payment

There was no official word here about what, if anything, had been paid to Iran this time in money or in favors for the release of the three hostages. But reports from Beirut several weeks ago indicated that a French deal for the hostages fell through when their captors demanded both a ransom for $28.2 million and a commitment from France to supply arms and spare parts to Iran through a third country.

Some television commentators speculated that the French public would not find out about any price paid for the release until after the election.

The public learned about the release in a dramatic way, meanwhile. While Chirac, the conservative candidate for president, was making a speech to the campaign rally in Strasbourg, Minister of Social Affairs Philippe Seguin stepped up to the podium and handed the premier a slip of paper.

“I have just been told,” the 55-year-old Chirac announced, “that the three hostages have been handed over to a representative of the Ministry of Interior.”

While the enthusiastic crowd chanted, “We are going to win,” Chirac said, “I am thinking now of the atrocious experience that they have undergone, which they in no way deserved. I am thinking of the anguish of their families and friends. I am thinking of the one, alas, who was the victim of these kidnapers and has not returned.”

Body Never Found

Chirac referred to Michel Seurat, a 38-year-old Arabist researcher kidnaped with Kauffmann three years ago. Islamic Jihad later announced his execution, although the body has never been found.

In a television address, Mitterrand, the 71-year-old Socialist candidate for reelection, said that the release of the hostages “fills me with joy.”

The president thanked all those who had worked for “the end of this tragedy” and said that all French felt “relief at seeing them come back to us” and “compassion for their long ordeal and the ordeal of their families.”

Mitterrand added that the French people also felt sorrow at the fate of Seurat and for the foreign hostages still in Lebanon.

French television channels followed the news with late-night special shows, but most analysts could reach no conclusion about how the release would influence the election.

Mitterrand Staff Not Involved

The Chirac government evidently handled the negotiations for the release of the hostages on its own without involving the staff of Mitterrand. In fact, there had been a good deal of bickering between aides of the president and the premier earlier in the day about who was responsible for the failure to obtain release of the hostages by then.

Speaking on television, Kauffmann’s wife, Joelle, who has often acted as spokeswoman for the families of the hostages, said that the release had been helped by “one government after another--it is the unity of the French that has allowed this liberation.”

Carton and Fontaine were seized in Beirut in March, 1985, while Kauffmann and Seurat were kidnaped two months later. The three were the last of 11 French hostages to be released. In addition, a French-Lebanese journalist, 32-year-old Florence Raad, has been missing since 1985, but no organization has claimed to have kidnaped her.

In all, there are now 18 foreigners, including nine Americans, missing and believed held captive in Lebanon. The longest held is Associated Press correspondent Terry A. Anderson, 40, who was kidnaped in March, 1985. He also is believed held by Islamic Jihad.