AP: Freed hostage tells of humiliations
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-16 09:21

A French television journalist, freed after four days in captivity in Iraq, said he was repeatedly interrogated by captors who accused him of being an Israeli spy and made him prove his nationality by drawing a map of France.

French television journalist Alex Jordanov answers a phone call in his hotel room in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 15, 2004, a day after he was released. Jordanov, freed unharmed at a mosque in Baghdad on Wednesday, said he suffered constant movement and threats to his life during a four-day hostage ordeal. [AP]

Alex Jordanov appeared shaken during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, smoking nervously and speaking slowly as he sat in a room in a well-guarded hotel where many journalists stay.

Jordanov, 40, was freed Wednesday and taken to the French Embassy, where he collapsed from exhaustion and spent his first hours as a free man staring blankly at a ceiling.

"When you are under high pressure 24/7 for four days, everything just ... comes tumbling down," said Jordanov. He appeared to be in good health, but had small red spots on his face and hands, which he said came from sleeping outside in the brush with frogs, bugs and "all sorts of animals I've never seen crawling all around."

Jordanov, who works for Capa Television in Paris, was kidnapped Sunday while videotaping an Iraqi insurgent attack on a U.S. military convoy between Baghdad and Karbala, a city to the south.

"We got caught in a mass, mass, mass battle between the Mujahedeen and the Marines," Jordanov said. Many of the insurgents call themselves mujahedeen, or holy warriors.

During the chaos, Jordanov was separated from his cameraman, Ivan Ceriex. While Jordanov ran for cover, a car pulled up to him, four men jumped out, grabbed him and put a knife to his throat.

Alex Jordanov is seen during an interview with The Associated Press in his hotel room in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 15, 2004.Jordanov, 40, who works for Capa Television in Paris, was kidnapped Sunday while videotaping a U.S. military convoy under attack. [AP]

"They were big, strong, bearded, weightlifter guys," Jordanov said. Ceriex was also kidnapped but was released after a day.

Jordanov was shuttled between about a dozen locations, including an abandoned cement factory and a farm. Militants brought in people who spoke English and French to question him, he said.

He was occasionally slapped, but rarely physically abused, he said.

"It was more the humiliation and the fear," Jordanov said.

His captors sometimes probed him about his religious beliefs, asking him about Jesus, known in Arabic as Isa.

They asked, "Is Isa the son of God?" Jordanov recalled. Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet, but not of divine birth.

"You are facing 12 Islamists. There is no room for a mistake," he said they told him.

Sometimes, militants took Jordanov out blindfolded at night, forced him to his knees and shouted at him.

"They would take you out at night and play with you," Jordanov said.

The worst moment came when the kidnappers discovered an old press card he had from Israel, where he went on reporting assignments.

The militants accused him of being an agent of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Militants later demanded he prove he was French by drawing a map of the country and pointing out where small towns were located.

Some insurgents are more favorable toward the French because France has refused to join the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq.

On Wednesday afternoon, Jordanov was brought to a Baghdad mosque.

The head of the mosque told Jordanov he was free.

"He opened the door and said, 'Go out,' but I'd been taken to so many places and told so many things that I didn't know," Jordanov said.

Jordanov walked into the courtyard and later saw the French ambassador and French police.

Herve Chabalier, president of Capa, told LCI television that negotiations with Sunni Muslim clerics led to Jordanov's release.

Jordanov's kidnapping was part of a spate of seizures of foreigners by Iraqi militants. Militants executed an Italian hostage, officials in Rome said Thursday. It was the first known killing among the nearly two dozen foreigners held in Iraq.

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