WORLD : Fatah to Free 3 Europe Hostages
A radical Palestinian group led by Abu Nidal said today that it will free three European hostages in response to an appeal from Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.
“I am glad to announce that our group has agreed to respond to the appeal of leader Moammar Kadafi,” said Walid Khaled, spokesman of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in a statement released in Beirut.
He said “contacts and arrangements are under way” to release Frenchwoman Jacqueline Valente and her Belgian boyfriend, Fernand Houtekins, both seized from a yacht in the Mediterranean in 1987, and their baby, Sony Houtekins, who was born in captivity.
On Wednesday, Kadafi called for the release of Valente as a compassionate measure on the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Fatah had seized the hostages aboard the French yacht Silco off the Gaza Strip. It claimed that they were collaborating with Israel’s Mossad secret service, but friends denied the charge and said the hostages were Roman Catholics on a holiday cruise.
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