Freed Romanian journalists to return home

Three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq are expected to return home later today, a day after their release.

TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci, of Prima TV, and Ovidiu Ohanesian, a reporter from daily Romania Libera, were taken captive on March 28 in Baghdad with their guide, American-Iraqi Mohammed Monaf.

The four were freed on Sunday and are currently in the custody of Romanian authorities in Baghdad.

A group calling itself Maadh Bin Jabal said in a videotape aired Sunday on Al-Jazeera television that it decided to free the hostages after an appeal by Romania’s Muslims and a Saudi preacher, Salman Bin Fahad al-Oda.

Romanian President Traian Basescu, who headed a top-level crisis team that worked to free the hostages, said no ransom was paid and that Romania “did not negotiate its foreign policy”.

The kidnappers had threatened in an earlier ransom video to kill the hostages unless Romania pulled its 800 troops out of Iraq.