Imtiaz Sooliman – responds to allegations
AI: Summary ©
A family member accuses Gift, a mother of a coworker, of threatening their son's life by releasing news about his escape from captivity in Syria. The family member denies any association with the news and mentions receiving a Facebook group update about the patient's return to Syria. The family wants to know what the next step is, but they have no direct contact with the member they are speaking to and have no idea what the next step is.
AI: Summary ©
Now the family of Shiraz Mohammed has accused gift of the givers of
endangering their son's life by issuing statements about his
escape from his kidnappers. He escaped to Turkey from his captors
in Syria. His mother, Shireen Mohammed says the family had
trusted the organization for two and a half years to get him
returned home, but had given up when there was no progress. Gift
of the givers then withdrew from negotiating with Mohammed's
captors. On Mohammed's escape, Shireen says that MTS Suleiman was
endangering her son's life by releasing the news prematurely. We
have imtia Suleiman on the phone from Johannesburg to respond to
this particular allegation. MTS, good to speak with you. Let's just
get straight to it. The comments coming through from the mother of
Shiraz are that you were endangering her son by making
those pronouncements way too early. What is your comment? It's
totally fallacious. It's completely incorrect. Tony, I
informed the family, you know, that I made a press release only
the next day, Shiraz, during his release was or his escape was
informed, related to us on Saturday afternoon, and then
Saturday evening, I people on the ground, people on the ground, who
were witnesses that Shiraz was safely taken across the border
into Turkey. I even sent a family message to say that once we
announced that Shiraz is in Turkish intelligence hands, he
saved that is his best security. If everybody knows that he's in
the hands of Turkish intelligence, nobody will dare interfere with
him. He is fine. He is safe. And that was on Saturday night.
Actually, some of the family members even admitted
publicly that they spoke to Shiraz on Saturday night and that he was
safe. So I don't know. Issue comes about, not being safe and secure,
and on Sunday morning, only once you were completely
allowed time to pass. The press release was so much about Shiraz
escaping, my dad was already communicated to the family and to
dego. But there's another big factor, that there's a big play
that goes on inside Syria. Remember, I have a hospital day,
but they've got six different divisions, and at 12 and tadi
star. Now, if there's any suspicion that we were involved,
or my teams were involved in getting Shiraz out of there or
planning something. It puts the hospital and the hospital managers
at risk. The hospital manager has been threatened many times by the
leader of the group that took Shiraz and by other groups, and we
expected somebody to call him again on Sunday morning to say,
what do you know about this? And as they predicted, they called him
to take all the attention away from the hospital. We had to make
it clear that they had nothing to do with this, that this was called
directly to South Africa, called our people, and we had no full
knowledge of this, if I may, if I may, interrupt you there. MTS, you
were trying to assist the release of Shiraz at some point for about
two and a half years, Wouldn't your hospitals and the hospital
managers been put, placed in danger anyway during that
particular period? So what's the difference? They were then? No,
they weren't in danger in that period of time. But if they
suspected that we were involved in the release of him escaping, that
would have been a big problem. So all the time in the two and a half
years, we told the hospital manager to stay out of it, because
he's in an area controlled by one group, and the group that took
Shiraz is in another group. So it was and he was afraid when he
spoke to us, when he heard from us that Shiraz was released, he was
afraid that, you know, that his life is in danger. Okay, Shereen.
Shereen, his mother is saying that they had received the news of his
escape before You, yourself had received that particular news. But
I think the point she's making is that she did not go on into the
press to tell the press or issue a press release. Why did you feel
that you had to do that before the family did? Now, well, that also,
I don't believe that is true, because when I informed them on
Saturday night, they the reaction from them was totally ecstatic. It
wasn't as if something new about least the messages came with Thank
you, praise God Almighty, and a whole range of words that came
from the family. It wasn't competing directly. It was from
the rest of the group. In the two and a half years we were involved
with them. We had created a chat group for the family, and the chat
wanted not to be on the group, because they said it is a
struggle. They said the market is very emotional. So are we? We are
means of communication with a family chat group. We are which
city was not on that group, and when we send that message, the
sister and other, the brother and others send red messages of
absolute thankfulness. They wanted to know what's the next step we
should have. What happens
next? Just on that you're speaking about the the family being
ecstatic. But again, his mother says that doctor Suleiman speaks
spoke about how.
Happy the family was, however, he has no direct contact with me
apart from WhatsApp messages. So she's,
what do you say to that?
It's not true. I did not speak to her directly. I put the message on
her group, and a daughter and a friend responded. The messages I
would be all for all to see. They read. They thanked us, and they
said, you know very Thank you very much for the information. And you
know what happens next? It was an esthetic response from the has a
son and a daughter. I mean, a daughters that live in the house
with us. Okay, everybody. We always publicative. Have you
spoken with Shiraz?
No, I don't know, Shiraz. I've never let you have in my life. I
have no idea should have is that's another mistake. People think that
we took into Syria. We didn't take into Syria. I actually don't, you
know. I've never met him, never spoken to him. The only time that
I knew that Shiraz Musharraf is was when he was in Syria, and he
got taken by the outside hospital. And I wondered how he got there.
And then we were told that one of the guys who was to be a volunteer
with us, and we arrange for arrangements for him to get into
Syria. The others volunteer had arranged for many, many groups and
many individuals to get inside Syria. So when we asked, When did
this happen? They said, like a few days ago. I said, But why did he
come? They said, No, he wanted to come. He wanted to film and take
pictures of the suffering in Syria, of people in Syria. I said,
but don't, you know that's too dangerous. You know, you can't
send journalists alone into a war zone, so I really don't know shit
out. I've never spoken to him, you know, I have no contact with him,
I you know, and he doesn't have my number, so he's only with his
family. But there's another thing I need to get the family said
that, you know, for two and a half years, we made them promises, and
we didn't keep 12 promises. Situation is not something you
know definitely to say, I'm negotiating now, and in five weeks
time, the guy will be out. It doesn't work that way. It takes
time you make an effort. And we kept them in communication all the
time. That's why we created a WhatsApp group. Things are back
groups. Also went to the home. I went to them once only, but most
of the time they came to my office. So we did what's
practically possible. We withdrew because you brought in another
negotiator. Negotiators been negotiating. It complicates the
case. It is just, just one, last one for me. Is there animosity now
between you and the family? No, no, I think we've never had a
problem. Neither does you know we pull out of the case, but we never
had a problem. We've always sent messages to them. I don't know
where this came from, and I wish them well, because we know what
trauma and how to stop the traffic in this kind of situation. I have
absolutely no animosity, you know. I wish them well, and I hope
sherath comes on soon, and therefore has come from the
negotiations of the Turkish Government. So I don't think it
should be a long time before Shiva comes back home. Alright,
fantastic, sir. Thank you for speaking with us. Doctor MTS
sulimane, the founder of the gift of the givers, which was accused
by the family of Shiraz Mohammed of endangering his life after
issuing statements about his escape from his kidnappers in
Syria, he escaped from there to Turkey. Let's move on now.