Jordan Times
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Jordanian hostage in Iraq freed
AMMAN (JT) — Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit on
Tuesday announced the release of Jordanian embassy driver in Baghdad Mahmoud
Saaidat, who was held hostage for two months.
“The efforts of His Majesty King Abdullah and his daily follow-up on all state
agencies to secure the release of Saaidat were successful,” Bakhit was quoted by
the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying.
“I am happy to convey the news of his release to his family and the entire
Jordanian people.”
The premier thanked “Jordan's friends, brothers in the Iraqi government and some
Iraqi notables, who exerted considerable efforts to secure his release.”
Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh later told reporters that Saaidat “was in a
safe place and he was expected to return in a few hours.”
Saaidat was snatched in southern Baghdad on December 20 by a group calling
itself the Hawks Brigade who threatened four times to kill him, according to
Agence France-Presse.
The group demanded Jordan cut ties with the Iraqi government and release Sajida
Al Rishawi, the female would-be suicide bomber, whose explosive belt failed to
detonate in the November 9 attacks that killed 60 people at three Amman hotels.
A videotape aired recently on Al Arabiya TV showed Saaidat as saying that his
captors had wrapped around him an explosive belt and had set a four-day deadline
to execute him unless their demands were met.
Judeh reiterated yesterday that all of the abductors' demands were rejected.
Saaidat worked at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad for several years.
The news of his release sent a wave of joy in his town of South Taibeh in the
Petra District.
“My mother shed tears of joy when she heard the news,” Saaidat's brother, Hassan,
told The Jordan Times. “She was praying for him everyday. We are grateful,” he
told The Jordan Times.
His fellow townspeople celebrated his release and citizens from villages in the
Maan Governorate flocked to South Taibeh to congratulate his family, Petra said.
Last week, an Iraqi driver working for the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad was shot
dead by assailants who seized his vehicle and fled.