AFGHANISTAN: Italian Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi thanks everybody for the realease of kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo

An Italian journalist kidnapped in Afghanistan was handed over to an Italian hospital on Monday(March 19) after two weeks in captivity and days after his driver was executed. La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was in good health, in the care of the Italian aid hospital in the violence-racked southern province of Helmand, Italian ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi told reporters in Kabul. "(He is in) very good health," Ettore Francesco Sequi told reporters in English. "He's in very good physical condition." Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah and the Italian government said Karachi-born La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo had been freed, but details remained sketchy. "My head is still spinning but I am happy. I managed to get out of the situation and I thank everybody who helped me," the freed Italian journalist told a TV channel owned by La Repubblica soon after his release. "This is the most wonderful moment of my life." The journalist said he had been "bound hand and foot" by his captors and moved to 15 different locations "as small as sheep pens, in the middle of the desert." The Italian Ambassador in Afghanistan praised the Afghan government and other agencies for their assistance in securing the freedom of the journalist. "He is a personal friend of mine so I am very pleased that this story has a happy ending. I want to thank Elizabeth Belloni, the chief of the Italian Foreign Ministry Crisis Unit, because she has been extraordinary. The handling of the kidnapping was the team work some governmental and non-governmental agencies and also non- Italian actors," said Sequi. Mastrogiacomo will be taken to Kabul as soon as possible and then probably to Italian, said Sequi.

ITN Source | March 20, 2007

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