We had privileged treatment say Italian hostages

Two Italian women freed from captivity in Iraq for a reputed million dollars ransom said today they feared for their lives throughout their three-week abduction, despite what they called ”privileged” treatment from their captors.

“The fear of being killed was there from the first day,” said Simona Torretta, one of the women aid workers freed along with two Iraqis also from the humanitarian group. ”We knew execution wasn’t imminent, but until we stepped on the airplane, the fear was always there,” she said.

At a news conference in Rome, Torretta and her fellow volunteer aid worker, Simona Pari, gave few details about their abduction because an Italian judicial investigation into the kidnapping barred disclosures.

The two women, abducted on September 7 from their office in Baghdad, were released on Tuesday and flown home on an Italian military jet.

Less than a week before their release, two Arabic websites posted claims that the two women had been executed.

While Italy’s foreign minister has denied that a ransom was paid, a leading parliamentary official said he believed Italy paid the money but won’t acknowledge it for fear of hurting cases of other hostages in Iraq.

Fabio Alberti, head of the women’s aid group, A Bridge to …, told a reporter who asked if ransom was paid that “this question must be put to those who can pay, like the government, the Red Crescent".

With beaming smiles, the “two Simonas” – as the Italian media has dubbed the 29-year-old pair – stepped onto a stage at a Rome theatre to applause from journalists and fellow humanitarian workers.

They embraced each other and posed for photographers.

Torretta said their captors asked for their forgiveness when they realised they were in Iraq to help local people.

“The relationship improved,” she said. “They checked out who we were. They gave us towels and soap and books about Islam, and they made us read the Koran.”.

“Our treatment was privileged, possibly helped by us being women,” said Torretta, who added that she thought her captors came from a “moderate religious” group.

After her release this month, another woman who was taken hostage in Iraq, a Turkish journalist, recounted how she was beaten by her captors.