France News

The journalist left the Iraqi capital the day after her liberation, during a sand-storm. President Jacques Chirac was among the many journalists attending her reception at Villacoublay military base, ending her 5 month long nightmare.

Florence Aubenas and her interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi were seized on January 5 in Baghdad. The officials don't want to reveal the details of her release; however they have said that no ransom was paid for the liberation of the journalist and the translator. It is assumed that they were acting under criminal rather than political motives.

- It was not easy to obtain her release, - said Bernard Bajolet, the French ambassador in Iraq.

The French correspondent was kept in a dark basement with three other hostages, Rumanian journalists, released at the end of May after almost two months in captivity. They were hostages of a little known rebel group called Maad Bin Jabal. - Florence kept saying: ‘Don't be afraid. They won't kill us. We're going to survive' - said Marie Ion, the Rumanian television reporter who shared the nightmare with Florence.

44 year-old Florence Aubenas is a senior correspondent employed by ‘Liberation' for the last 18 years. The French media led a massive public campaign of solidarity with her during those 5 months of her captivity. She thanked them all saying that it kept her spirits up.

It wasn't the first time that French journalists had been kidnapped in Iraq. In December 2004 two other French correspondents, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were released after four months in captivity.