Nairobi: The French agent who escaped the
clutches of his Somali captors arrived back in Paris on Thursday as
insurgents holding his partner said they would put him on
trial as a spy.
A top member of the al Qaeda-inspired Shebab group
holding the second agent said the man would be tried under
Sharia Law.
"We know that the other French secret agent has gone free
without judgement, but I tell you the one we are holding still
waits for Islamic Sharia court that will decide his fate as we
already said," he said to a news agency on condition of anonymity.
"He cannot escape. We keep him in a heavily-guarded place
and he has very little chances of escaping," he added by
telephone.
Somali Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gele said the
government was working for the release of the second French
agent.
The French authorities maintain that the two men were on
an advisory mission to the Somali transitional government when
they were snatched from their Mogadishu hotel on July 14.
Several witnesses said they had presented themselves as
journalists.
The escaped agent, who has given his name to interviewers
as Marc Aubriere, flew out of Mogadishu to a French military
base in neighbouring Djibouti and is due to return to Paris
later Thursday, a French official said.
Bureau Report
