International AFP
The Spanish reporters Jose Manuel Lopez, Antonio Angel Sastre Pampliega and returned to Spain on Sunday after ten months captivity in Syria, where they were kidnapped while covering the civil war in that country.
His release came on Saturday and Sunday the three took a plane from Turkey which moved to a military base on the outskirts of Madrid. “They have come to Torrejon de Ardoz Spanish journalists” reported on 10H30 local time (08H30 GMT) A government spokesman.
At 10:45 am, a convoy composed of several official vehicles and a minibus leaving this base located 20 kilometers east of Madrid, found a photographer from AFP.
“the best news in the world. Mourn joy would fall short,” he wrote in his Twitter Alejandra Pampliega, the sister of one of the journalists , on the news on Saturday.
“Welcome!”, published in this social network the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, next to a photograph of journalists descending the plane in apparent good health and fitness.
Lopez, Pampliega and Sastre had been last seen on July 13, 2015 in the neighborhood of Maadi Aleppo (in the north), controlled by various rebel groups and stage of many battles during this conflict.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), the three, who had entered the country three days earlier, circulated in a van when they were abducted by a group of men.
His disappearance was not made public until July 21, when families asked the media “patience” and “respect” to facilitate the release. The abductors had distributed a video of their hostages but the media did not broadcast at the request of the Spanish government.
Some Spanish media say that his captors were Syrian branch of Al Qaida, the Front Al-Nosra.
– “Spinach with bechamel” –
the silence was broken on Saturday, when the Spanish government and the Federation of Press Associations of Spain (FAPE) announced their release, thanking especially collaboration of Turkey and Qatar in the final stage
“finally the day has come that we had been waiting for almost a year. we were happy and relieved to celebrate the release of Antonio Pampliega, José Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre “, said Sunday the president of reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Spain, Malén Aznárez.
the three reporters arrived on Saturday to Turkey, from where they could talk to the vice president of the Spanish Government and also with their families.
“When I talked to him on the phone has been wonderful. Had the same voice as always, as a child, and I continually apologized for what he has put me through, “said the mother of Antonio Pampliega, María del Mar Rodríguez Vega, cited by RSF.
mother reporter was clear how he planned to meet his son with “a plate of spinach with bechamel, which is what he likes”
the three worked as independent journalists, while collaborating with several. Spanish media like newspapers La Razón or ABC or television Cuatro. Pampliega and Lopez had collaborated with AFP in covering this conflict.
All had experience in conflict zones. Sastre, 35, performed work on prisons in El Salvador or the train known as the Beast, which crosses Mexico and is used by many immigrants trying to reach the United States.
Pampliega, 33, worked in Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria and South Sudan. Lopez, the oldest of three to 45 years, and recognized with several awards, covered as a freelance photojournalist the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Haiti.
Syria is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, according to reporters Without Borders, which has posted since the conflict began in 2011 the killing of at least 139 journalists and 47 bloggers and online activists.
in September 2013, three Spanish journalists were kidnapped in Syria and released in March 2014.
This was the correspondent of the newspaper El Mundo Javier Espinosa, freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, and journalist of the newspaper Catalonia, Marc Marginedas, hostages of the Islamic State (EI).
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