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Italian journalist describes fellow hostage's death

"I saw him be decapitated. The Taliban started saying, `In the name of Islam, we sentence you to death.'"

Daniele Mastrogiacomo, reporter for La Repubblica daily

An Italian journalist held for two weeks in Afghanistan saw his captors cut off the head of one of the two Afghans kidnapped with him and thought he would be next to die.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was released on Monday, also said he was moved 15 times during his captivity, was bound by chains and held in places "as small as sheep pens."

Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for the Italian daily La Repubblica, arrived at a hospital in Lashkar Gah, in southern Afghanistan, where the Italian-led aid group Emergency is based, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said.

"He is in good health and I expect that in a few days, we will be able to hug him," Prodi said.

Prodi said securing Mastrogiacomo's release "was not simple," likely referring to the days of negotiations, and that more details would be released later. In a news conference on Monday night he thanked Afghan President Hamid Karzai for his support.

"I believe that there has been team work by all the Italian authorities and Afghan authorities, both institutions and [people], like Emergency, which has played a great role," Ettore Francesco Sequi, the Italian ambassador to Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul.

He said Mastrogiacomo was to arrive in Kabul yesterday and leave for Italy shortly afterward.

Prodi's office said in a statement that the reporter would be flown back to Italy on a state plane and his family, "an extraordinary family for its unity and strength, will be able to hug him again along with all of us."

Mastrogiacomo and two Afghans traveling with him were kidnapped on March 5 in southern Helmand Province's Nad Ali district. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility.

In an audio message broadcast on his newspaper's Web site, and later in an interview with RAI Tg3 News, Mastrogiacomo described a harrowing experience.

He told La Repubblica that he slept in 15 different prisons that were "as small as sheep pens." His hands and feet were chained, and he was made to walk for kilometers in the desert.

The journalist told Tg3 he watched his captors kill one of the Afghans who had been kidnapped with him.

"I saw him be decapitated. The Taliban started saying, `In the name of Islam, we sentence you to death,'" the journalist added.

He said the captors then threw the Afghan to his knees and cut his head off.

"Then they wiped the knife on his clothes," Mastrogiacomo said. "I was shaking. Obviously I thought `it's my turn now.'"

The fate of the other Afghan was not immediately known.

Mastrogiacomo said he was struck in his back and head with an AK-47 during his capture, but was not hurt any other time.

"If they needed a blanket, they gave me one too. If there was bread to share, they shared it with me, so that was not a problem," he said.

Earlier, Mastrogiacomo told La Repubblica that knowledge of the support of his colleagues and countrymen gave him strength.

"I knew that Italy was supporting me and that was the only comfort in the most desperate moments, when I feared I was going to be killed at anytime soon," Mastrogiacomo said. "This is the most beautiful moment of my life."
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