Syria, freed Italian engineer
and Russian colleagues kidnapped in December

MOSCOW –  and Russian colleagues kidnapped in Syria last December have been released . Mario Belluomo was released along with Viktor Gorelov and Abdel Sattar Khassun. “He is safe and we look forward to seeing him again soon in Italy,” Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said in announcing the final conclusion of the affair. “Right now – continues Terzi – together with the great satisfaction for the positive outcome of the case, I want to express the profound gratitude for all the apparatuses of the State that have worked on this result, starting with the Unit of Crisis”. There are 31 Italians kidnapped outside the country who were brought home in just over a year.

“It is with relief that we await the return of the engineer Belluomo to the house, considering the risk he has run for his safety in a country devastated by unheard-of violence of which innocent civilians are the victims” concludes Terzi.

According to a statement from the Russian foreign ministry in a statement, the “extremists” have freed the three hostages in exchange for the release of some militants. The two Russians are already in the Russian embassy in Damascus, while a man will be handed over to the representatives of the Italian authorities through the Syrian Foreign Ministry. The aforementioned Russian foreign ministry reported from the Interfax agency. The three had been kidnapped on 12 December 2012 on the road from Homs to Tartus, in western Syria. According to a note from the Russian foreign ministry, “the two Russians were exchanged yesterday with some guerrillas”.

After the kidnapping of the three, the demand for a ransom was also discussed . The news was spread by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Belluomo, 64, is originally from Catania and worked a Latakia steelworks. He is an engineer specialized in electrical engineering and lives in San Gregorio, a municipality just outside Catania. He is married and has two children, a boy and a girl, in their twenties.

(04 February 2013)