Documentary filmmaker held hostage for three months at terrorist training camp
- added June 29, 2008
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- crazykatlady
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Channel 4 paid a £150,000 ransom to secure the release of a documentary film maker who was held hostage for three months after trying to make contact with Al-Qaeda’s second in command.
Sean Langan, 43, was held by criminals linked to the Taliban at a terrorist training camp in a lawless border region of Pakistan. He and his Afghan interpreter were kept in a darkened cell, measuring 8ft by 8ft, within earshot of a Taliban firing range.
“It was a constant barrage,” a close friend in Kabul said. “They could hear machineguns, antiaircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenades going off the whole time. But they weren’t being shot in a contact [firefight] – it sounded like training.”
His captors eventually made Langan call a friend in Kabul and explain that he was a hostage and that he would be killed if their demands were not met.
The two men, who were working for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, were released after an Afghan go-between hired by the broadcaster delivered a briefcase full of cash to their kidnappers. The Foreign Office is believed to have warned Channel 4 against paying any money, fearing that it could inspire copy-cat abductions of westerners.
Sean Langan, 43, was held by criminals linked to the Taliban at a terrorist training camp in a lawless border region of Pakistan. He and his Afghan interpreter were kept in a darkened cell, measuring 8ft by 8ft, within earshot of a Taliban firing range.
“It was a constant barrage,” a close friend in Kabul said. “They could hear machineguns, antiaircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenades going off the whole time. But they weren’t being shot in a contact [firefight] – it sounded like training.”
His captors eventually made Langan call a friend in Kabul and explain that he was a hostage and that he would be killed if their demands were not met.
The two men, who were working for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, were released after an Afghan go-between hired by the broadcaster delivered a briefcase full of cash to their kidnappers. The Foreign Office is believed to have warned Channel 4 against paying any money, fearing that it could inspire copy-cat abductions of westerners.
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- crazykatlady
- 3 months ago
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