Imtiaz Sooliman – SA hostage Gerco van Deventer freed

All right, let's begin with this South African hercufant in fente,

who was kidnapped in Libya in November 2017

and then sold to an al Qaeda, to al Qaeda, rather in Marlene the

next year, has been released unconditionally. Now, his

captivity of six years and one month makes him the longest held

South African hostage, Vandeventer, a paramedic, was

released into Algeria on Friday. The announcement of his release

was made by gift of the givers, who have been very instrumental in

his release. Let's speak now to Dr India. Suleiman, gift of the

givers, founder, thank you so much for your time. Dr Suleman, let's

just start with what else do we know about his release.

Good afternoon, Bogey. We don't know much, except that he was

released yesterday. From what we were told, I got a call yesterday

afternoon from our state security personnel saying that they got a

call from the Algerian state security to say that they have

have to

fly from him, to fly from wherever to our years, to be checked in a

hospital. And it's all the information they have right now.

They don't know the circumstances of his release. Did we then got in

a pardon me continue.

We then got in contact with the intermediaries and asked, Is this

correct? And they said they apologized. They supposed to have

got back to us a little earlier, but they said It's correct that he

has been released, and if you discuss later, argued all

background behind that. But they said he has been released, and you

know, arrangements were made to Algeria and that he is on that

side now and in freedom, you know, and released unconditionally. Have

they said anything about how he is?

Well, they don't normally tell you that you know, but generally,

procedures that are capital generally kept in very good

condition. There's or if you there's two dangerous parts, if

they're capturing you, you know the data capturing, and you

resist, there's a possibility they'll shoot you on site and you

will die. And if you resist them once in captivity, there's a

chance they'll shoot you then also, but any other, any other

point, you know, they take very good care of you, because you mean

a lot of money to them, especially when they pick up big ransoms,

like 3 million, 4 million, $5 million euros, you know, that kind

of money. So they take very good care of you. What? What? What they

can't take care of is your emotional and your physical state,

because you can be well fed, well looked after, but it's an intense

situation. So you love like how they love moving from area to

area, sometimes in a tent, sometimes in a cave, maybe in a

house in a village, and you eat what they eat so but they take

good care of you. Need medical help. They call the doctors to

take care of you. But your emotional state, you know you're

missing your family. You don't have the condition. How your child

is how your wife is that's very difficult to deal with. And most

sausages, you know, find it very tough when they come back. I can

only imagine. And Dr Suleman, one of the things that you know we are

learning and reading is the fact that he was released

unconditionally. But some viewers may want to know, because we know

that at some point, when they took him, they were asking for, you

know, around $3 million and then the amount at some point. We know

that, according to reports, it was negotiated down, but it was never

confirmed exactly how much they would have wanted. So someone is

watching tonight and listening to us saying he's been released

unconditionally. Does this mean that this ransom was paid or not?

Let's clarify that for them,

there was no ransom. Day. We got involved in 2018 the family came

to us, and we never get involved in cases unless the family asks.

So we got involved in 2018

we have a relationship with the intermediaries, because we've done

many situations in Mali before. We work with Stephen McGowan, Johan

Gustafson, Christopher Patel from Burkina Faso, and we advised other

negotiators on behalf of other hostages from other countries. So

we have a history. And so the first thing we did through the

intermediaries in 2018 he said, we asked, What's the asking? And they

said, $3 million they said, it's crazy. It's a South African

dissembly can afford that. We need to bring that down. It took some

time. Eventually it came down to 500,000 US. But of course, the

family doesn't have that kind of money. There was no benefactor,

and there was no the company that he worked for. He just started

work for them. So they were not going to pay for the staff. They

just started working for them. Gift of the givers. We don't pay

any rent, some money. We facilitate the discussion so that

the hostage can release on behalf of the family. So, because there

was no money, no ransom, that the negotiation sort of just went down

and went cold, and soon after that, it was covid. So everything

died for two years. In January this year, one of the

intermediaries that we know were asked to call us and said, Look,

over the last few years, many hostages have been released. Why

don't you try again? So we said, You've been released because

people have been able to pay money. We don't have money to pay.

So what's the difference? They said, just try. We're not

leveraged. We have nothing to deal with. But fortunately, a month or

two later, was Ramadan, and we used that as an opportunity to

say, look, it's Ramadan. You know, it's the fasting month. People are

so far.

Can you release him? The impeccable communities got

together. They put a blackout, requesting, you know, Please

release him. It's it's a good month. Religious leaders gave a

letter, many letters. They said, release him. We did all that.

Nothing happened. Then came the month of pilgrimage, Hajj. We

tried the same procedure again. Nothing happened. Then something

happened. The earthquake took place in Morocco, and many of the

captors are linked to people in Morocco. They have a penalty from

that country. And we offered assistance to Morocco, not because

of the captains, because that's what we do normally in disasters.

And the Moroccan government politely said, Look, we're

managing. We don't need any help from outside. And they didn't

really take international assistance. But the word got

through to the captors, the gift of the givers offered assistance.

They indirectly sent a message to say they appreciate what we did.

So we tried to use that as leverage to say, Okay, we try to

help your country. Why don't you release her? Go unconditionally.

No response. Then something happened. On November 16. We got a

call late in the afternoon from one of the chief intermediaries

that we've dealt with since 2015 was directly responsible for

Stephen McGowan's release, and he said, I need all the videos again,

the one that the family made, that you published publicly, and the

ones that you haven't published publicly, I need all of them. Now,

what is strange, what was important about that date? And I

don't know it's a coincidence. The morning of 16 November, the head

of my office in Gaza, Ahmad Abbasi, was directly murdered by

his value occupational forces. I know that same morning and his

brother was also murdered on the way back from mosque, from Friday,

from morning prayer. The same afternoon, we get this request and

nothing else is said. On the first of December, we get a call from a

person we don't ever know, never spoke to, have no idea about, and

from another country. He calls us from Mauritania, and he says, I'm

working on the release of cargo now. We don't know what this

person is and what you got to do with all of this. And suddenly,

last night, we get the call after we made the call, of course, to

say that you guys haven't called us, but we hear that kind of was

released in Australia. I mean, Algeria, is this correct? And they

said, Yes. And I said, what we meant to tell you is that, you

know that we normally do it through money, yeah, but we can't

do it now, because the money military and the toilets are at

war right now, so it can't work. We try. You could. You got a call

from somebody in Mauritania, because that person was trying to

release arrange a release from the Mauritania state security. But

they refused. They said, we don't get involved in our situations.

And then we went to the Algerians, and the Algerians have done it

before, and they agreed. So we released him unconditionally

through the Algerian and it's and he said one of the reasons that

maybe he was released unconditionally is because of the

war, the afraid hostages may die in captivity with them, and it

looks very possible that many more hostages are going to be released

unconditionally and very briefly, then we're out of time. How is his

family receiving the news?

Well, you know, the family, of course, not being the wife of

who's a very strong lady. Take it just, of course, I thought she

sees him. You know, she doesn't get overlated and over excited.

She's been very controlled. You know, from the first day, seven

years from six years ago, a strong woman for her, for herself, and

for her son Asher and you know, she's taken it in stride, very

positive, full of hope, full of faith. And you know, waiting for

the outcome, very thankful that it has happened. But of course, the

greatest will be but she received personally in South Africa, and I

have interviewed her before, a very wonderful lady indeed. And as

you say, very, very positive, but well done. And once again, Dr

Sullivan, really, for sticking this one out and never giving up

on this family. And really, you must be relieved as well tonight.

But let me thank you so much, even for your time, just to give us the

update on this very important story that was Dr, mts Suleiman,

gift of the givers, founder, you