Wife Hears British Hostage Mann Has Died in Captivity in Lebanon

The wife of 75-year-old British hostage Jack Mann said Friday that she was told by “a completely convincing” informant this week that her husband had died in captivity.

Sunny Mann said she met with the informant Monday in Muslim West Beirut, where her husband, a retired pilot who had fought in the Battle of Britain in World War II, was kidnaped May 12 as he drove to a bank.

In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said the British Embassy in Beirut was checking the authenticity of the report of Mann’s death and whether he was killed or died of natural causes.

“If the report from his wife is true, we are appalled and deeply shocked,” the Foreign Office spokesman said.

At a June 12 news conference in West Beirut, Sunny Mann appealed to the kidnapers to release her husband, saying, “His health is very bad, and I’m afraid he will have another stroke from the shock of being kidnaped.”

The Manns had been living for nearly 40 years in West Beirut, where he once worked as a pilot for Lebanon’s national carrier, Middle East Airlines, and later as manager of the Pickwick Pub and the Captain’s Cabin Bar.

Sunny Mann, herself in her 70s, said that a businessman had telephoned her Monday at her apartment in Muslim West Beirut, saying that he had some information on her husband and asked to meet with her.

“I was afraid it was a kidnap attempt,” she said. She said at first she refused to meet the man because she was apprehensive of the suggested meeting place--the Riding Club near the Palestinian refugee camp of Chatilla.

“I did not want to go there because the club is deserted on Mondays, and Hezbollah is in control of the region,” she said.

She owns horses at the Riding Club and usually goes there early in the mornings to give riding lessons.

Hezbollah is a pro-Iranian organization believed behind the abduction of 16 foreigners in Lebanon.

“He seemed insistent and suggested to meet him on Hamra Street. I accepted,” she said. She said she met him at an empty shop on a business street.

She described him as a middle-aged man, who told her: “I’m very sorry. I have some very bad news. We would like you to know that your husband is dead.”

She said at first she could not believe what she was told, “but after four days of thinking, I came to the conclusion that I have to put the story out.”

“The man was completely convincing,” she said.