The three Italian hostages freed in Iraq returned on Wednesday to a tearful, joyful, yet slightly ambiguous welcome as some of the many questions surrounding their ordeal were answered.
The men emerged from the Italian prime minister’s jet, which had flown them to Rome from Kuwait City, looking strained and thinner than before their kidnapping, but in good humour.
Before dignitaries, led by the deputy prime minister, Gianfranco Fini, could shake their hands, the sister of one of the three former captives, Antonella Agliana, ran around the official party to leap into her brother’s arms.
Salvatore Stefio’s father, Angelo, who has carried the Italian tricolour everywhere in public since his son was taken, sank to his knees still clutching the flag as he embraced the three men in turn.
Agliana earlier said she intended to kiss her brother, hug him and then give him a good ticking-off. There were signs the official position might not be dissimilar.
Maurizio Agliana shouted: ”We’re home,” to the throng of journalists. But he and his companions had no further chance to speak to the press. They were escorted off the runway at Ciampino airport by police and flown to a carabinieri barracks.
Notwithstanding that they had been travelling since midnight, they were then whisked to the Rome’s anti-terrorist prosecutors.
Italians’ delight over the hostages’ release has been tempered by suspicions that their presence in Iraq was illegal. The law bans Italian citizens from undertaking armed missions overseas.
The prosecutors were reported to have sought clarification on how they were re cruited, the circumstances surrounding their seizure, and the murder of a fourth hostage, Fabrizio Quattrocchi.
Alessandro Cevese, a senior foreign ministry official, who listened to the hostages’ stories on the plane to Rome, said that, after Quattrocchi was taken away, they had feared the worst, but only learned of his death ”from [Italy’s ambassador Gianludovico] de Martino when they were delivered into his hands in Baghdad.”
Cevese said it was possible Quattrocchi had been killed because he carrying a card issued by the provisional authority of the US-led coalition.
Prosecutors will also have been keen to clear up the most tantalising mystery surrounding the affair. In a video released by the kidnappers, a voice not belonging to any of the hostages could be heard speaking in perfect Italian.
Cevese said the three captives ”were not treated particularly well”. He said they had slept on the ground, ”and on two occasions they were all shut up in a bathroom two metres by two metres for about three days”.
He recounted a moment of high tension when one of the kidnappers tried to strip Stefio of his wedding ring. The 34 year old had said he would sooner be shot.
”The kidnapper at that point replied: ‘Then, I’ll take you outside’ and Stefio [said] ‘No don’t shoot me outside. Shoot me in front of the other lads”’, Cevese said.
The newspaper La Repubblica reported that the three Italians were located thanks to the capture of a Polish businessman, Jerzy Kos, who was freed at the same time.
The report, citing US military and intelligence sources, said the group holding the hostages had been identified by Polish intelligence following the interrogation of one of Kos’s Iraqi employees.
The hide-out was then located by a second Iraqi in the pay of a US intelligence service. La Repubblica said the hostages were freed by US troops, but that Polish and Italian intelligence officials observed the operation.
A Japanese activist briefly taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents in April has filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government, saying its deployment of troops in the region had angered his kidnappers and was to blame for his ordeal, reports AP in Tokyo.
Nobutaka Watanabe (35) is demanding five million yen in damages for mental and physical hardship he suffered during his four-day captivity, according to his lawyer, Masatoshi Uchida. – Guardian Unlimited Â