Rumours suggesting that Italy
paid a ransom to free two young hostages kidnapped in Syria last
summer were "just conjecture", Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni
said Friday.
The Italian government, like its predecessors and in line
with international practice, is against paying ransom to free
hostages, Gentiloni said in the Lower House after welcoming home
aid workers Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo.
The two women arrived in Rome early Friday after almost six
months in custody.
When their release was announced Thursday, opposition
Northern League leader Matteo Salvini referred to media reports
suggesting the Italian government paid a 12-million-euro ransom
and denounced the practise.
Italy has been on the front line against terror since the
terror attacks on the United States in September 2001 and "won't
take lessons from anyone on that", Gentiloni said as reported to
the House on the situation.
Rome will reaffirm this stand at an upcoming conference of
the coalition fighting Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Syria
and Iraq, he added.
The women, wearing winter parkas and looking exhausted from
their ordeal, were greeted with long hugs from their parents,
family and friends, who drove down from Lombardy to meet the
women.
Marzullo, 21, and Ramelli, 20, had arrived in Syria
since July 28 and were volunteering on health and water-related
humanitarian aid projects.
They were to be taken for medical check-ups in Rome on
Friday as well as meeting investigators probing their
kidnapping.
The aid workers arrived in Rome at about 4:20 a.m. Friday
after a three-hour flight from Turkey on an Italian military
plane.
Marzullo was greeted by her parents and brother while
Ramelli was welcomed by her parents, her brother and his
fiancée, as well as two school friends who are also aid workers.
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