Family ‘can’t wait to see’ kidnap victim after ordeal

AIDAN LEAHY’S family will make an emotional trip to London this morning to be reunited with him after his four-week kidnap ordeal in Iran.

Speaking shortly after his older brother was handed over to the authorities, Seamus, a bar owner, said: "It's hard to put into words just how we're all feeling right now. I can't wait to see him again."

Speaking in Iran yesterday, Aidan said he and his two German companions suffered a huge amount of mental stress, but were physically unharmed by their captors.

Mr Leahy, a 41-year-old mechanic from near Kettering in Northamptonshire, was travelling on an Irish passport courtesy of his Westmeath-born mother Ann-Marie.

He was handed over yesterday to the Irish Ambassador to Iran, Thomas Bolster, at Tehran International Airport. He is expected to return to London this morning.

Mr Leahy said that following his kidnapping near the town of Bam, which was destroyed in an earthquake on Friday, he and his two companions were driven to an unknown place in the desert.

"We were never sure where we were. We were told many stories Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran. They said they were Taliban linked to al-Qaida.

"They tried to confuse us, we were never sure who they were," said Mr Leahy, a seasoned traveller who, according to his brother, had planned to cycle overland to Australia. A keen cyclist, he has previously trekked in Africa and Vietnam and two years ago cycled to China.

He and the two Germans, Oliver Brug and David Storm, were kept in one room and were blindfolded for much of the time they were held by the kidnappers, believed by Iranian intelligence to be members of a drug gang.

"We were treated very well by our captors," Mr Leahy said, before adding that obviously there had been a lot of mental distress.

Of their release, Mr Leahy said: "We were taken by car and they then handed (us) over to police... blindfolded."

He thanked the Iranian government, the Iranian police, the Irish Embassy and the German Embassy for their efforts in securing their release, though it is not known what prompted the kidnappers to release them.

His brother Seamus said it was "like something out of the movies".

"We're still in the dark about exactly what happened. But the main thing is I managed to speak to Aidan very briefly on the phone and he says he's all right.

"He's strong minded and a very experienced traveller. If anyone was going to cope well, it was going to be him, but it must have been very stressful."