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These French who remained hostages for several years

2020-10-09T13:20:56.975Z


VIDEO - Sophie Pétronin has been released after almost four years of detention in Mali. Before her, several other French hostages had remained in captivity for years.


Sophie Pétronin, the last French hostage in the world, has been released after almost four years of detention in Mali.

Before her, several other French hostages were kidnapped by various armed groups, and remained in captivity for several years before their release, or attempted release.

Read also: The ex-hostage in Mali Sophie Pétronin returned to France, welcomed by Emmanuel Macron

  • Ingrid Betancourt, hostage for 6 and a half years in the Amazon jungle

Franco-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt (center), welcomed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy (2nd left) and his wife Carla Bruni (left), as well as French Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner, and his children, Mélanie and Lorenzo Delloye, at Villacoublay military airport, July 4, 2008. GERARD CERLES / AFP

Candidate for the Colombian presidential election in 2002, Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped on February 23, 2002 by the peasant guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and held captive for more than six years in the Amazon jungle.

In France, Dominique de Villepin, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, made his release a matter of state.

Read also: Sophie Pétronin, last French hostage, was released in Mali

Ingrid Betancourt will be freed, along with 14 other hostages, during Operation Jaque, led by the Colombian national army on July 2, 2008, six and a half years after her kidnapping.

She was greeted two days later by the President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy, at Villacoublay airport, as well as by her relatives and by the heads of its support committees.

Read also: Colombia: Ingrid Betancourt welcomes the Farc's request for forgiveness to the victims

  • Marcel Fontaine, Marcel Carton and Jean-Paul Kauffmann, hostages for three years in Lebanon

The three French hostages in Lebanon, the diplomat Marcel Fontaine, 45 years old (2nd left), hugged by one of his two sons;

Marcel Carton, 64 years old (center) to whom his daughter Simone al-Khouri runs;

and journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann, 43 years old (2nd d.) are followed by Prime Minister Jacques Chirac (right), shortly after their arrival from Beirut on May 5, 1988, on the Villacoublay military base.

PASCAL GEORGE / AFP

Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton, both civil servants at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stationed in Lebanon, were kidnapped on March 22, 1985 in Beirut.

While reporting in Lebanon for

The Thursday Event

, the great reporter Jean-Paul Kauffmann was kidnapped in his turn in Beirut with the sociologist Michel Seurat, on May 22, 1985. During his kidnapping, Jean-Paul Kauffman saw the traumatic experience of traveling, on several occasions, rolled up in an oriental carpet where asphyxiation sometimes leads him to lose consciousness, which will strongly mark his life.

All these kidnappings are claimed by the Lebanese fundamentalist organization of Islamic Jihad, which demands an end to French aid to Iraq, then at war with Iran.

To read also: Jean-Paul Kauffmann: "It is with the unknown part of the irrational that it is necessary to organize its confinement"

After almost three years of detention, Jean-Paul Kauffmann was released on May 4, 1988 with Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton.

Michel Seurat, for his part, died during his captivity in 1986. Jean-Paul Kauffmann, Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine were greeted the next day at Villacoublay airport by Jacques Chirac and Charles Pasqua.

Jean-Paul Kauffmann will have his words: "

It's a day that remains dark, I was kidnapped with Michel Seurat, and we saw him pass away, we saw him fight with despair and nobility, he wanted to live, it's awful, first of all, my thoughts go to Marie Seurat, his wife, and his two daughters (...) at the beginning he said he was ready to stay 3 years without seeing his daughters, and I said to him 'but you are crazy, you do not realize, 3 years!', and it is he who left

”.

  • Denis Allex, hostage for nearly 3 and a half years in Somalia

In this image released by the SITE Intelligence Group on June 9, 2010, we see the DGSE agent Denis Allex (pseudonym), filmed by his captors of the Islamist terrorist group Harakat al-Chabab al-Moudjahidin.


INTELLIGENCE GROUP / AFP WEBSITE

Denis Allex, an agent of the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), was on a mission in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, to train the police and the presidential guard of the Transitional Federal Government, when he was captured by Islamists from the Islamist terrorist group Harakat al-Chabab al-Moudjahidin, July 14, 2009.

Read also: Legendary commandos: on January 11, 2013, the DGSE operation to save Denis Allex

An attempt at liberation took place during a military operation by the French army carried out in Buulo Mareer on January 11, 2013. But the operation failed, resulting in the death of 17 Islamists, French captain Patrice Rebout, head of the commando, and especially the storm itself.

The French army believes that the hostage was executed during the operation, while the Shebabs will announce his assassination on January 17, 2013. Another French soldier is also missing.

  • Pierre Legrand, Daniel Larribe, Thierry Dol and Marc Ferret, hostages three years in Niger

French President Francois Hollande speaks, alongside ex-hostages Marc Feret, Pierre Legrand, Daniel Larribe and Thierry Dol, on the tarmac of the Villacoublay military air base on October 30, 2013. The four Frenchmen spent three years in captivity after being kidnapped on September 16, 2010 in Arlit, northern Niger.

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

Pierre Legrand, Daniel Larribe, Thierry Dol and Marc Ferre were kidnapped at the Areva site in Arlit, in northern Niger, on September 16, 2010. The kidnapping is claimed by Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi).

On October 29, 2013, the President of the Republic François Hollande announced their release.

On October 30, they are welcomed on the tarmac of Villacoublay, alongside the Head of State.

Read also: French hostages in Niger: key dates

The conditions for negotiating their release remain unclear - the payment of a ransom, perhaps by the Areva group, was notably mentioned, without this being confirmed.

  • Serge Lazarevic, hostage for three years in Mali

President François Hollande (right), makes a statement, alongside Diane Lazarevic (left), his father Serge Lazarevic (center), and Clément Verdon, the son of the hostage Philippe Verdon, executed during his captivity , on the tarmac of Villacoublay military airport, on December 10, 2014, after three years of captivity with members of the terrorist group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

BERTRAND GUAY / AFP

It was during a business trip, and while he was in the Hombouri hotel in northern Mali, that the Franco-Serbian Serge Lazarevic was kidnapped with Philippe Verdon on November 24, 2011. According to Pascal Léquence, the president of the support committee for Philippe Verdon and Serge Lazarevic, the two men prospected the surroundings with a view to building a cement plant.

After their kidnapping, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) presented the two hostages as French intelligence agents, which has since been denied.

Read also: The bottom of the release of Serge Lazarevic, the last French hostage

His release, by Aqmi, was announced by François Hollande on December 9, 2014, after long negotiations with the terrorists.

It is the result of “

intense efforts

” by Niger and Mali, after more than three years of captivity in the Sahel, then indicates the Nigerien presidency.

Philippe Verdon was shot in the head during his captivity, his body being found in July 2013 in northern Mali.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-10-09

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