Imtiaz Sooliman – Sooliman on captured photojournalist Shiraaz Mohamed

Imtiaz Sooliman
AI: Summary ©
The CEO of Gvision, banned from speaking to anyone inside the prison, but gave a video of a member of the group who was being held captive. The CEO said that the situation was being worked on, and that the givers were working on a plan to get the situation resolved. The givers were also working on a plan to get their money back.
AI: Transcript ©
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Uh, we've seen that video, the clip a few minutes ago, with

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Shiraz making a very earnest appeal for help. How did you get

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to this point in the process?

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We have been involved for two years, three months now, trying

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the different groups, trying speaking to people inside Syria,

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outside Syria, and, you know, trying to look at Shiva, trying to

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find which group was he was, took him the circumstances, and a whole

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lot of it's a long story, but finally, on the 12th of April, we

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had some fantastic information, some personal we can't mention

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right now, gave us very strategic information. And as a result of

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that information, we finally got to the people who eventually gave

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us a video on Friday, the 26th of April. I mean that video, which is

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shown by you, should have made that appeal that in itself to be

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taken out from captivity.

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Do we have any idea where exactly he's being held and the conditions

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around his captivity right now,

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from the information we had previously reliability commission,

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and which is the standard case in all captivity cases, you can move

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from place to place. We know that he has moved from place to place.

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So we don't really know where he is right now. But that is a

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standard process. From what we were told that he was well looked

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after. There was no problem about him being looked after, but ways

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we don't know. And when I say, well, looked after, it depends on

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the type of houses or type of location these people stay in

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there, good house, the situation will be good. If the underground

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tunnel, it will be an underground tunnel. So it varies from time to

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time, the places where it stays, where it's taken, the availability

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of resources, what is given to eat, all those kind of things, but

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overall, it's been well looked after.

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MTS. We want to get a sense of where to in the process. Do we go

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from here? Have there been any ransom demands? Did you have any

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information on that note for us? Now, it's just a first step in the

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first step. After two years, three months. There were a lot of other

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things that happened, but from next week, they're giving us

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video. They probably give

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it to the family. You know the family has seen it, and I'm sure

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sometimes this week, some more information will come through, and

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maybe the demands will come through. Then will Shiraz be able

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to communicate with his family and loved ones at all. You've dealt

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with a number of cases of these, this kind of nature. And

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sometimes, if not always, the kidnapped, the hostage, is allowed

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to speak to loved ones at home, if only for proof of life at that.

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No, they won't get a chance to speak, because speaking to the

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family is the video. You can only speak through the video to the

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family and those who are dealing with trouble trying to get him

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out, but a direct call to the family that will have happened

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in tears. Can you share with us any more information on the

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process going forward? What will you as gift of the givers do? What

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will be your next initial step? Now,

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we've got a lot of processes to go ahead. One is we'll wait for them

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for their feedback or what the demands are, but have other

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systems in place, which I definitely cannot discuss now,

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which will harm the case, but at the appropriate side, we will

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mention exactly what we're doing and what steps we've got in place.

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There's a lot of things to do now, but the video we're waiting for

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the video to be able to do what you're going to do next, right?

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What are the usual demands of kidnappers in cases like the same

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tiers,

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commentation, nothing. It's all about money. It's a pure business,

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and it varies from 1.5 million to 2 million to 4 million to 12

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million euros of dollars on a type of hostage to country. You know

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how important the person is, what the status is related to

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government. So the price varies. I don't know from place to place,

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which group is holding him, how desperate they have to get that

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kind of him or her for that better. So if you never see the

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one, it's always about money, but sometimes it's not about money.

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It's about exchange of prisoners. It's strategic capture of targets.

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And they don't want any money, but they want their friends released

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from prison, which, of course, one was in this case, because they

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haven't captured something they can get because there's this

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country's work on so there's no real government, so there's nobody

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negotiate with to take people out of seven, and they can't capture a

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South African to negotiate with a Syrian. That's never going to

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work, I see. And what are the chances of you negotiating down

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the price on Shiraz right now? Sorry, I didn't get a question.

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What are the chances of you negotiating down the ransom on

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Shiraz right now? Whatever that figure stands, if it does come to

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that, yeah, well, we don't pay rental money. No, that's our

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standard policy. We don't pay to spend some money. Of course, we

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don't stop the families from things to rent some money. But the

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family themselves cannot afford whatever it is going to be in the

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millions they're going to talk about. It's probably not going to

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be 5000 or $10,000 obviously, we know it comes in the millions. So

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the family cannot afford that kind of money. Governments want to.

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So we're going to be at a stainless and that's why we're

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going to find other ways to solve the storm. Alright? MTR Suleiman,

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we are out of time. He's the CEO of gift of the givers joining us

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on the line from Peter marisberg.

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