Jordan Times
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
2 citizens kidnapped
By Khalid Dalal
AMMAN — A government official on Tuesday confirmed that two citizens were
kidnapped in Iraq during the past 48 hours.
"We were informed by a Jordanian citizen in Iraq that Taha Maharmeh was
kidnapped on Monday, while the family of Jamal Saliemeh said he was abducted on
the same day," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ali Ayed said. Ayed added that the
government is following up on both cases with its diplomatic mission in Baghdad
and Iraqi authorities to help ensure the release of both men.
Details on the abduction of Maharmeh were not immediately available.
Saliemeh's son, Sameh, told The Jordan Times that he received a phone call from
two friends of his 63-year-old father, saying that the businessman was kidnapped
from his residence in Seediyeh district by a group that demanded a $250,000
ransom. According to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, three men wearing police
uniforms stormed Saliemeh's place and took him in a white car to an unknown
destination.
Sameh, 29, said his father, who has been working since 1994 in Iraq as an agent
for a Korean tyre company, suffers from diabetes and heart problems.
"My family cannot afford to pay money demanded by the kidnappers," he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of State and Government Spokesperson Asma Khader told
reporters in her weekly press briefing yesterday that the two Jordanian
hostages, who were released Monday night, returned home on Tuesday.
Ayed received truck drivers Fayez Adwan and Ahmad Salameh at the Queen Alia
Airport.
A brother of Adwan was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that his family
did no pay ransom to the kidnappers and that his release was the result of
"mediation efforts by honourable people in Iraq and Jordan."
Adwan and Salameh were kidnapped late last month by a group calling itself the
Mujahedeen (Holy Warriors) at Al Qaem area, near the Iraqi border with Syria.
Both men were working for a local private catering company whose owner pulled
his firm out of Iraq to help free his employees from their abductors.
Last month, seven citizens were kidnapped in Iraq. All of them were released
during the past two weeks.