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Hostages The West Has Paid To Have Freed

Hostages The West Has Paid To Have Freed

Theresa May is moving to shut down a ransom loophole because Britain, along with the US, believes that paying to free hostages funds terrorism and encourages kidnap gangs.

There is some evidence to back up their position.

The UN estimates that Islamic State has raised £28m ($44m) over the last year through ransoms, while the US Treasury Department has said al Qaeda and its direct affiliates have raised £80m ($125m) through hostage-taking since 2008.

While Britain and the US stick to a firm policy of refusing to respond to ransom demands, other countries are believed to routinely pay for the release of their citizens - channelling money through middlemen or aid budgets.

Here are some examples of situations where ransoms are believed to have been paid to secure the release of hostages.

:: Nicolas Henin, Dider Francois, Edouard Elias, Pierre Torres

The four French journalists were held by the same Islamic State (IS) group that beheaded Britons David Haines and Alan Henning and Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig.

They were kidnapped in June 2013 while working in Syria and released in April and, although the French government has denied paying for their freedom, a ransom of £11m ($18m) was reportedly paid.

Citing NATO sources in Brussels, German magazine Focus reported that French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian personally took the money to Ankara and it was passed on to the kidnappers by Turkish secret services.

:: Judith Tebbutt

Mrs Tebbutt endured seven months held by a gang of Somali pirates who had murdered her husband David when they stormed the couple's room at a Kenyan beach resort 25 miles from the border with Somalia.

Relatives were allowed to speak to her on the kidnappers' satellite phone and specialist negotiators set about trying to secure her release, while the Foreign Office requested a blackout on media coverage.

Mrs Tebutt's son Oliver led a fundraising effort and she was freed in March 2012 after a private security firm dropped $940,000 (£601,000) from a plane - $800,000 going to the pirates and $140,000 to "brokers and handlers".

:: Pierre Legrand, Daniel Larribe, Thierry Dol, Marc Feret

France denied paying to secure the release of the engineers, who were seized by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) with three other French citizens from a uranium mining camp in Niger in September 2010.

The case attracted attention when Osama bin Laden mentioned it in his last recorded speech before he was killed in 2011 - revealing how al Qaeda's leadership was taking a close interest in kidnappings by its international affiliates.

French daily Le Monde and news agency AFP quoted French intelligence and Niger government sources in detailed reports claiming that a ransom - said to be £21m ($33m) - was paid.

:: Edwin Dyer, Marianne Petzold, Werner and Gabriella Greiner

The group were abducted after attending a Tuareg music festival on the Mali-Niger border in January 2009 and handed over to a well-organised AQIM gang.

Security experts believe a payment was made for 76-year-old Ms Petzold, who was released with Mrs Greiner after three months, although German officials have never commented on the case.

Werner Greiner was released two months later and although Swiss officials credited Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure with securing his release, a statement from the country's parliamentary financial committee indicated that ministers approved a £1.9m ($3.2m) payment.

The kidnappers reportedly demanded a ransom of $10m (£6m) and the release of radical cleric Abu Qatada for Mr Dyer, but when the UK government refused to negotiate, the 61-year-old plumbing firm manager was killed in May.