ITALY: Freed Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo returns home from Afghanistan

An Italian journalist, freed after being held hostage in Afghanistan, returned home on Tuesday (March 20) after facing protests from relatives and friends of his driver who was beheaded by the Taliban kidnappers. Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, freed after being held hostage in Afghanistan, returned home on Tuesday (March 20) after facing protests from relatives and friends of his driver who was beheaded by the Taliban kidnappers. Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for the Italian daily "La Repubblica", arrived in Rome shortly after 11 p.m. (2200 GMT) in an Italian government aircraft. Looking tired but in good health, he stepped off the plane with his arms raised in a victory sign, and went on to hug family and colleagues as well as Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi who had come to meet him at the airport. The reporter, who has been asked by Italian prosecutors probing his two-week long kidnap not to make public statements before they can question him, did not speak to journalists on his arrival. After being released by his captors on Monday (March 19), Mastrogiacomo was brought from the Afghan southern town of Lashkar Gah on Tuesday afternoon and flown straight out of Kabul airport. Mastrogiacomo's departure marked the end of a dramatic day in which protesters blockaded an Afghan hospital where he was staying, demanding details of the death of his driver, Syed Agha. More than 200 relatives and friends of Agha protested outside the Italian-run emergency hospital in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, demanding to talk with the Italian, who was kidnapped by the Taliban on March 5. His translator, Ajmal Nakshbandi, is still being held. Mastrogiacomo, Agha and the translator were kidnapped in the wild Helmand province about the same time NATO launched its biggest offensive against the Taliban and local drug barons. The Taliban say they freed him after the Afghan government handed over four of five insurgent leaders, including the brother of military commander Mullah Dadullah. A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said a deal had been struck, but would not give any details.

ITN Source | March 21, 2007

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