An Egyptian Bedouin who abducted two Boston natives and their guide on Friday vowed he would take more hostages of different nationalities if police do not release his uncle from prison.
Speaking by telephone, Jirmy Abu-Masuh of the Tarbeen tribe in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, said the captives would remain safe, but that more would be abducted if his uncle is not released.
“If my uncle gets 50 years [in prison], they will stay with me for 50 years. If they release him, I will release them,” he said. “Tomorrow I will kidnap other nationalities and their embassies will be notified for the whole world to know.”
Abu-Masuh, a 32-year-old truck driver, said the American man, 61, and woman, 39, were treated as “guests” and given tea, coffee and a traditional lamb dinner reserved for special occasions in Bedouin culture. He said that the man is a pastor from Massachusetts and that he had been allowed to call his wife.
“I told them ‘nothing will happen to you. You are my guests,’” he said.
The two Americans could not be immediately reached for comment. Abu-Masuh said they were asleep in his home located deep in central Sinai’s rugged mountains. The hostages were abducted in broad daylight when Abu-Masuh stopped the tour bus they were in with dozens of other tourists along a major road linking Cairo to the sixth-century St Catherine’s Monastery, located at the foot of Mount Sinai where the Old Testament says Moses received the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments. The route to the monastery is frequently targeted by Bedouins who abduct tourists to pressure police to meet their demands, which is usually to release of a detained relative they say has been unjustly arrested.
While armed, Abu-Masuh said he told the man and woman to get off the bus and took their Egyptian tour guide with them to translate.
“The Americans with me are scared, but we were treated well,” tour guide Haytham Ragab, 28, told media from the captor’s phone.
Ragab said he is not allowed to use his own mobile phone except with permission from his captor.
“I want this solved,” Ragab said, his voice quivering. “I tried to calm them [the Americans] and tried to calm myself, but I don’t know what’s to come next.”
US embassy spokesman David Linfield said the embassy was looking into the kidnapping and working closely with Egyptian authorities who were doing everything to ensure their safe release.
Friday’s abduction is the latest in a series of kidnappings in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula over the past year. Abducted tourists are rarely harmed and usually released within days. In February, foreign media interviewed two American women from California who say their Bedouin kidnappers gave them tea and dried fruit, and talked about religion and tribal rights.
Abu-Masuh said he wants police to release his 62-year-old uncle, who he said suffers from back and heart problems and diabetes. He said his uncle was arrested last week on Sunday on his way to Alexandria after refusing to pay a nearly US$100 bribe to police who stopped him along the way. The story could not immediately verified.
“These police are the same traitors of the Mubarak regime. Nothing has changed,” he said, referring to ousted former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak’s widely mistrusted security forces. Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising last year partly fueled by anger at police brutality and corruption.
“I hate the security forces and honestly they made me hate being Egyptian too,” he said.
Bedouins in Sinai, a region that borders the Gaza Strip and Israel, have long complained of state discrimination. Many are unemployed and say they are never given high-level posts in the military and frequently harassed by police.
Egyptian security officials said on Friday they were working on releasing Abu-Masuh’s uncle. They spoke on condition of anonymity.
Abu-Masuh said that Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri called him personally and asked him to release the Americans “who are guests in our country.” He said his uncle called him from prison pleading the same and fearing police might arrest his children or wife to pressure Abu-Masuh.
“People ask me what did these Americans do to deserve this. I ask what did my uncle do to deserve this?” he said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was