GERMANY: GERMAN HOSTAGE REINHILT WIGEL RETURNS HOME AFTER BEING RELEASED BY HER COLOMBIAN LEFTIST KIDNAPPERS

Record ID: 519618

  • Title: GERMANY: GERMAN HOSTAGE REINHILT WIGEL RETURNS HOME AFTER BEING RELEASED BY HER COLOMBIAN LEFTIST KIDNAPPERS
  • Date: 26th November 2003
  • Summary: (EU) BREMEN, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 26, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF BREMEN AIRPORT 0.03 2. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF ARRIVALS SIGN 0.06 3. PRESS WAITING ON THE VISITOR'S TERRACE 0.12 4. CU: LOGO FOR BREMEN AIRPORT ON LANDING RAMP 0.15 5. LUFTHANSA PLANE ARRIVING 0.23 6. PLANE TAXIING ALONG RUNWAY 0.42 7. PLAN
  • Embargoed: 11th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BREMEN AND GANDERKESEE, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVADSGUFDDNCSM9AS2JDWZATHWM0
  • Story Text: German woman held hostage in Colombia has returned
    home to Germany.


    Reinhilt Weigel, the German woman who had been held
    hostage by leftist rebels in mountains in Colombia for ten
    weeks arrived home on Wednesday (November 26).

    After transferring flights in Frankfurt, the
    32-year-old arrived in Bremen near to Ganderkesee where her
    parents live. According to her brother, Gerald Weigel,
    Reinhilt and her parents where taken under tight secrecy to
    a place where she could have a bit of peace and quiet.

    "She is in a safe place, she has been quickly taken to
    a place where she can have a bit of peace and quiet at
    first, she will perhaps make an appearance within the next
    few days," he told reporters waiting outside their parents
    house in Ganderkesee.

    He said they had learned of his sister's release on
    television and that he had not seen her as yet, but had
    only spoken with their parents on the telephone after they
    had met Reinhilt.

    "She is doing well, she is just tired as anyone would
    be after her exertions," he added.

    The Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army, known by
    its Spanish initials ELN, released Weigel and a Spanish
    hostage on Monday (November 24), but they are still holding
    four Israelis and one British man hostage.

    The ELN rebels seized the eight hikers on September 12
    near the ruins of an ancient Indian city in the northern
    Sierra Nevada mountains. One hostage, a Briton, escaped and
    wandered for 12 days in the jungle before he was rescued by
    Indians in October.

    The ELN, which kidnaps hundreds of people for ransom
    every year, said it abducted the young backpackers to mark
    the 30th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew
    socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende.

    The ELN is insisting that a humanitarian mission check
    the condition of Indians living in the Sierra Nevada
    mountains following reports of killings by right-wing death
    squads, something the government says it will only do once
    the five remaining hostages are released.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register