French no longer with captors
2004-09-02 23:11
Perpignan - Two French journalistsm, who had been taken hostage in Iraq, are no longer in the hands of their abductors, said French culture and communications minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres on Thursday.
"We know they are alive and no longer in the hands of the abductors who had held them," he told journalists in Perpignan, southern France.
The minister added, however, that "our two compatriots are not in complete security with French forces".
The French media was abuzz on Thursday with speculation about the fate of journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were abducted by the self-styled Islamic Army in Iraq, demanding that France lift a controversial ban on the Islamic headscarf in state schools.
Hopes were high on Thursday that the journalists would be freed after France declared the men were safe and well.
"I believe we can hope for a happy end," French interior minister Dominique de Villepin told France 2 public television.
"The indications that we have this evening are going in the right direction."
- AFP