Freed hostage leaves Beirut for home

Press, 26 December 1986, Page 5

Freed hostage leaves Beirut for home

NZPA-Reuter Larnaca The freed French hostage, Aurel Cornea, left Cyprus for home last evening, aboard a French military jet, after arriving from Beirut by helicopter. Mr Cornea, aged 54, looked pale and walked with difficulty, witnesses said.

The French television soundman was released on Wednesday night by the Muslim “Revolutionary Justice Organisation” as a Christmas gesture.

The French Government said yesterday it “rejoices with all its heart at this outcome, which takes on a special significance on Christmas Eve.” It added: “In six months, five hostages

have been freed. This new release is the fruit of stubborn efforts by the Government and the contacts that it has continued to maintain with all those who ... can play a useful role in favour of French and Western hostages.” Mr Cornea, one of two Frenchmen being held by the clandestine organisation, was released after mediation by Iran, Syria, and Algeria, and because of “serious steps for a solution” the revolutionary group said had been taken by France. One of the group’s main demands has been for France to end its aid to Iraq, which has been at war with Iran for six years, and to get out of the “American political

circle.” The group still holds a French television lighting technician, Jean-Louis Normandin, aged 34, who was kidnapped with Mr Cornea on March 8, and two Americans. Two other French hostages were released by the group in November, about the time France paid back to Iran SUS33O million ($640 million) of a disputed 11-year-old SUSI billion loan. A French mission to Iran to discuss ways of resolving outstanding financial differences returned to Paris yesterday after a two-day visit to Teheran. Mr Cornea was dropped by his captors about 200 m from a hotel, where

scores of French Embassy officials, reporters and photographers waited.

As the tall, heavilybearded Frenchman walked wearily into the driveway of the hotel, he told reporters: “I am fine, I am fine.” A few hours after his release, the mother of a British journalist, John Patrick McCarthy, who was seized on April 17, issued a Christmas appeal to his abductors to release him “to a mother who is very anxious to see him.” The 18 foreigners still held by militant groups in Lebanon include seven Americans, six French nationals, two Britons, an Irishman, an Italian and a South Korean.