Journalist doubts her kidnappers are dead

Dutch journalist Judith Spiegel who was kidnapped in Yemen last year doubts reports that the men who took her freedom have been killed. Yemen reported last week Wednesday that terrorist leader Wael-el-Waeli and several other men were killed by soldiers in the capital of Sanaa. It claimed el-Waeli had been behind the kidnapping of Spiegel and her partner Boudewijn Berendsen in June last year, but Spiegel, who is currently in Oman investigating her kidnapping says she never heard of the man. “Nowhere in the statement from the Yemeni authorities does it say why they think he was behind the kidnapping,” she said, questioning claims from Yemen that el-Waeli was also behind the death of a Frenchman last week and an attempted kidnapping of a Russian. “They like to do this kind of thing: there, we’ve solved all unsolved cases and we should all be happy.” She said she saw the pictures of the dead men on Facebook, but did not recognize them. She said she has not had a lot of contact with the Yemeni authorities since she was released and they certainly did not find el-Waeli with her help. Which, she added, does not mean that the Yemeni authorities are wrong.