British journalist freed
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from August 1991.
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In Beirut, an underground group claimed it kidnapped a Frenchman in Lebanon Thursday to protest McCarthy's release and threatened to execute him if any more hostages are freed.
McCarthy, a 34-year-old television producer, said he was carrying a message for U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar offering a mutual release of prisoners in Lebanon and Israel.
"I spoke to some of the leaders of the (Islamic Jihad) group, and they said they believe the time is right now to end all the situation (of) all the Western hostages, and they've given me a letter they've asked me to take directly to Secretary-General of the U.N. (Javier) Perez de Cuellar.
"They want to make a full exchange of the Western hostages, all the prisoners, civilian and military, who are currently being held in israel, from Lebanon. ... They believe that releasing me indicates their good intent in this matter," he said in a television interview in Syria.
McCarthy later flew to London on a Royal Air Force jet. from page 1 Earlier Thursday, the U.N. chief said a second hostage might be released Thursday or Friday.
"I hope it will be an American but I do not expect more than (a total of) two" releases," he told reports in New York, adding that he has been in contact with "all parties concerned" for the last two days.
