A six-month investigation conducted by the "Investigative Unit of Al Jazeera"It would shed light on the dark world of hostage negotiations, and it would reveal the modus operandi of some governments that would choose to pay ransoms.
In one case, Italy would have paid several million dollars for the release of an Italian and a Belgian journalist. In an other, Al Jazeera he would have obtained photographs of a cash ransom, for 11 million dollars, which would have been paid by Italy to the Syrian armed group, al-Nusra, in exchange for the release of two humanitarian workers.
The secret files obtained from Al Jazeera they would also reveal how Italy would have intervened in the negotiations with the Somali pirates and would have brokered an agreement to pay 525 thousand dollars for the release of two subjects. Italians and South Africans would then have served the media a false story, supporting a daring raid by Somali military, supported by the West, to free the hostages.
The new documentary by Al Jazeera entitled "The Hostage Business", which will go on next Monday, 12 October. Al Jazeera it would also have come into possession of photographs that would show the eleven million dollars in cash that would have been delivered last January to the emissaries of the al-Nusra front, linked to al-Qaeda. Money, always second Al Jazeera, would have served for the release of the abducted humanitarian workers. Always the Arab television, supports the payment of another ransom that would have happened for the release of two other subjects held hostage in Somalia and the secret imposed by the authorities on the dynamics also to the family of the hostages.
The Italian government would have refused to comment on the results of Al Jazeera, affirming its policy of "not paying ransoms".
The documentary, The Hostage Business, also explores the case of US journalist James Foley, beheaded by the Islamic State in August last year.
