Freed hostage arrives in West Germany

Press, 6 October 1988, Page 8

Freed hostage arrives in West Germany

NZPA-Reuter Wiesbaden An Indian held hostage for 20 months in Lebanon by Muslim militants arrived in West Germany yesterday for medical treatment and debriefing on his way home to the United States. Mithileshwar Singh, aged 60, looked weak and tired after an ordeal which ended when he was released on Monday in Beirut and later handed over to United States officials in Damascus.

Mr Singh, a business professor who has the right of permanent residence in the United States, stumbled and had to take the arm of a soldier as he climbed a few steps into the medical centre at the United States Lyndsay Air station in Wiesbaden. He had arrived less than an hour before, in the middle of the night, at the American RhineMain air base in nearby Frankfurt after a fivehour flight in an American military plane from Syria. American officials said Mr Singh, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, had been taken away to sleep. A debriefing team led by a senior State Department official would question him. United States authorities have customarily used the modern military hospital at Wiesbaden as a stop-over point for freed hostages and hijack victims before they returned home. Mr Singh, looking trim in a grey suit, white shirt and tie, was given a lowkey welcome on arrival in Frankfurt. He was ushered past dozens of reporters and camera crews and ignored shouted questions. At one point, he smiled wanly. Mr Singh was seized with three American professors — Alann Steen, aged 49, Robert Polhill, 53, and Jesse Turner, 40 — by gunmen at Beirut University College on January 24, 1987.

His release was announced by the proIranian Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, which said it was giving up one of its hostages as a gesture of good will.