Carroll kidnappers demanded $8m

Posted by Martin Stabe on 13 April 2006 at 10:13
Tags: ABC, Iraq, Journalism, United States, War reporting

The man who negotiated the release of American journalist Jill Carroll has said that her kidnappers were demanding a ransom of $8 million.

Speaking to the American television network ABC,  Sheikh Sattam al-Gaood, a former business associate of Saddam Hussein and supporter of the Iraqi insurgency, described the kidnapping of the freelance working for the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor as “a mistake”.

Al-Gaood, who was one of the people thanked by Carroll’s family following her release, denied that he had paid the ransom demanded by her kidnappers, but had instead arranged to pay for widows and orphans of Iraqi insurgents.

Tags: ABC, Iraq, Journalism, United States, War reporting