Italian tourist kidnappers want to negotiate with Berlusconi government
An Italian national said Friday she is still alive and held hostage by the Salfist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
“I am Maria Sandra Mariani, the Italian. I was kidnapped on February 2nd next to the town of Janet in Algeria,” said the Italian woman in an audio tape broadcast by the TV channel Al Arabiya.
“I am still held hostage by the terrorist group. It is Tareq Ibn Ziyad brigade led by Abdelhamid Abu Zid. I ask Al Arabiya to broadcast this message and thank you,” she added.
The tape starts by a man’s voice speaking Arabic, saying “we are Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Tarq Ibn Ziyad brigade. I speak on behalf of Abdelhamid Abu Zid. This woman has been held hostage since Wednesday February 2nd, 2011. She asks to broadcast this message so that the president of her country hears it.”
The channel said it got the tape on Thursday after a man had contacted it saying he is a spokesman for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. He also said his organisation claims responsibility for the abduction and she is still alive.
The Italian tourist came to Algeria on January 20th and was supposed to return home on February 22nd.
The tourist guide who accompanied her said 13 or 14 armed men speaking Mauritanian dialect entered the house where Maria was staying. They confiscated the guide’s documents and mobile phone and forced the tourist to get in a car. They went to the Algerian Nigerian borders.