Alessandro Sandrini, a Brescia native who was taken hostage near the Turkey-Syria border in October 2016, has been released by an al-Qaeda linked anti-government group near Idlib, the militia said Wednesday.
The self-styled 'government of national salvation', a Syrian branch of the al Qaeda galaxy and the political arm of the strongest Qaeda-linked group in and around Idlib, Hayat Tahrir Sham, published photos of Sandrini, 32, on social network and said that he had been in the hands of a gang of criminals. Turkey, a strong influence in the region, has links to the government of national salvation.
Sandrini's father said in Brescia: "I can confirm it, my son is free, he's still in Syria but in the hands of our Carabinieri".
"I'm over the moon," said Gianfranco Sandrini, it's the end of a nightmare, now I'm going to Rome, I hope I can speak to him on the phone tonight".
The national salvation government's self-styled interior minister, said Sandrini had been freed after "negotiations" with the terrorists.
The government's communique did not mention a ransom.
It said Sandrini had been handed over to "the government of his country" without mentioning any possible Turkish role in the affair.
Self-styled Deputy Interior Minister Colonel Ali Kedde said police patrols under the command of the interior ministry had identified the gang holding Sandrini.
The gang had been hoping for a ransom, he said.
The colonel said Sandrini had been freed after an "indirect negotiation" between the ministry and the unidentified "gang". Sandrini's kidnapping was only reported in December 2017, a year after he disappeared after travelling to Turkey in October 2016.
Then, after four phone calls to his mother over the course of several months, a dramatic video was posted showing him in an orange jumpsuit and guarded by two men with AK-47s.
In the video, Sandrini said they he feared his captors would kill him soon.
"They have given me the chance to communicate for the last time," Sandrini said in the video released by The SITE intelligence group that monitors online jihadism.
"I ask Italy to help me, to wrap up this situation quickly.
"I've been in prison for two years and I can't stand it any more.
"They have said that they are fed up, that they will kill me if things are not resolved soon.
"I can't see a future. I don't know what to think... today is July 19, 2018".
Sandrini left home in Brescia on October 3 2016, when he boarded a flight from the local Orio al Serio airport which took him via Istanbul to Adana, a Turkish town 180 km from Aleppo.
"I'm going on holiday," he told his family.
Over the last year Sandrini's name has appeared twice among defendants in trials in Brescia.
One trial, for robbery and receiving stolen goods, was for allegedly trying to sell tablets stolen from a fast food joint at Desenzano del Garda to a group of Chinese alleged fences; and the other was for a robbery he allegedly committed in October 2016.
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