Thursday, February 28, 2013

Yemen kidnappers free Swiss woman after Qatari mediation - agency

DOHA (Reuters) - A Swiss woman held hostage for nearly a year in Yemen has been freed by her kidnappers and flown to Doha following mediation by Qatar, the Qatari state news agency QNA reported late on Wednesday.

Armed tribesmen had kidnapped the teacher in the western Yemeni port city of Hudaida in March 2012 to press their government to free jailed relatives, a Yemeni Interior Ministry official told Reuters last year.

Swiss teacher Sylvia Abrahat, who was kidnapped in Yemen, arrives at Doha International Airport in Doha after she was freed February 28, 2013. Abrahat was freed on Wednesday after she was held for almost a year since her abduction by tribesmen in Hodeidah province in western Yemen in April 2012. Swiss Ambassador in Qatar Martin Aeschbacher thanked Qatar for mediating in the case as he received Abrahat at the airport. There are no further details on her release. Qatar's Assistant Foreign Minister Ali Alhajri is also pictured on left. REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous

QNA said that an assistant to the Qatari foreign minister and the Swiss ambassador in Doha were at the airport to greet the woman, identified as Sylvia Abrahat, upon her arrival aboard a private plane from Yemen late on Wednesday.

"I thank the Qatari negotiating team, which had worked for months in silence, patience and wisdom until we reached this result," QNA quoted the Qatari official, Ali bin Fahd al-Hajeri, as saying, without giving further details.

Kidnappings of foreigners and Yemenis are common in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state. Many are often freed unharmed.

A Finnish couple and an Austrian man are currently being held by suspected Islamist militants, having been sold by armed tribesmen who had kidnapped them in December last year, according to a senior Yemeni official.

The Austrian hostage had appeared in a video posted on YouTube earlier this month, saying he would be killed if ransom money was not paid to a Yemeni tribe within a week.

Pictured with what appeared to be an AK-47 assault rifle pointed at his head, Dominik Neubauer had said in a video posted on February 21 he would be killed if a Yemeni tribe did not get ransom money within a week.

His family responded on Wednesday with its own appeal in a YouTube video for his release as his hostage takers' deadline for a ransom payment neared.

Yemen last month suspended a military operation against al Qaeda-linked militants in al-Manaseh while tribal leaders tried to secure the release of the three hostages.

(Reporting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Jackie Frank and Lisa Shumaker)

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Yemen kidnappers free Swiss woman after Qatari mediation - agency