Imtiaz Sooliman – responds to allegations

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.