Two French journalists freed after 18 months’ captivity at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan stepped smiling and laughing onto home soil and into the arms of their families yesterday.
Cameraman Stephane Taponier and reporter Herve Ghesquiere, both 48, stepped into the sunshine at a military airport near Paris at 9am, hugged and kissed relatives and shook hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Looking relaxed and healthy, they told television crews on the tarmac that they had not been mistreated by their captors, but did not enjoy the Afghan mountain food, and passed the time listening to the radio and doing exercises.
Photo: AFP
“We were locked up 23 and three-quarter hours a day with just two toilet breaks, dawn and evening,” said Ghesquiere, looking tired but smiling and laughing at times.
“We were never beaten,” he said, adding that he spared a thought for hostages elsewhere in the world who were mistreated.
He said they even had interesting discussions with their captors, via their interpreter Reza Din who was captured with them.
“You had to be tough ... We hung in there, with lots of help from our interpreter Reza, who is also with his family now in Kabul,” he said.
“We are very, very well,” Taponier said. “We were never threatened, but the living conditions were still very hard.”
Stepping off the plane earlier, they embraced waiting relatives and shook hands with Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a private moment captured from a distance on televised images.
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