Kidnapped female Iraqi MP "released without ransom payment"

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Sunday August 27, 2006

Baghdad- Tayseer al-Mashadani, a female Iraqi MP from the (Sunni) Iraqi Accord Front who was held hostage for 56 days, said Sunday that she had "been released without the payment of ransom money." Al-Mashadani told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa her kidnappers had told her on Saturday that she would be released "as a gesture of support for the Iraqi Tribal Conference that was being conducted in light of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's National Reconciliation Plan." The conference was convened on Saturday.

Al-Mashadani, an engineer and mother of four, said that she had been kidnapped by a gang manning a bogus checkpoint in Baghdad's north-eastern Shaab district in early July.

They stopped the car in which she was travelling and asked her guards not to use their firearms. They then took her to an undisclosed location.

The kidnappers had not demanded ransom payment saying they supported "the principle of national reconciliation and want to see it succeed."

While al-Mashdani did not give any clues to her kidnappers' identities, she said she "had been treated well throughout the period of her captivity" and expressed gratitude for Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki's efforts to secure her release. She met al-Maliki after her release.

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi welcomed her release and called for the release of all hostages, including al-Mashadani's bodyguards whose fates and whereabouts remain unknown.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur