Australian-Media.com.au News

• Alan Johnson freed from captivity

  July 4 2007 12:55pm (UTC+8)  -  Article by Pun

  The BBC's middle eastern correspondent Alan Johnston has spoken about his relief after being released from captivity in Gaza, where he spent 4 months being held captive by a radical Islamic group. He was kidnapped from the Gaza Strip while reporting for the BBC.
  
  Johnson appeared composed as he said he was only released due to the serious pressure from Hamas, who were calling for his release.
  
  "If it hadn't been for that real serious Hamas pressure, that commitment to tidying up Gaza's many, many security problems, I might have been in that room for a lot lot longer,'' He said at a news conference in Gaza.
  
  Johnson described his captors as "comfortable and secure", and said he had suffered "almost no violence at all", but mentioned how they threatened his life "in various ways".
  
  A video was posted on the internet on in early June which contained Johnson saying how he was in good health, and his captors were treating him well.
  
  On June 17th, Abu Osameh al-Mo'ti, representative of the Palestinian Islamist group in Iran issued a statement mentioning how Alan Johnson would be released within hours, but were quashed by a Hamas official saying "that it could not be predicted within terms of hours."
  
  Johnson has already mentioned how he'd like to return to his reporting position, though it's not sure when he will.
  
  Australian-Media.com.au