WORLD : Palestine Unit to Free Hostages
BEIRUT — A radical Palestinian group headed by terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal said today that it will release four Belgian hostages in exchange for a Palestinian imprisoned in Belgium. The Palestinian was convicted of an attack on Jewish children in Antwerp in 1980 in which one child was killed and 19 people injured. He is now eligible for parole.
Belgian officials denied there was any deal for an exchange.
Walid Khaled, official spokesman for Abu Nidal’s Revolutionary Council of Fatah, said the four hostages will be handed over to Belgium within 48 hours.
The captives are Emmanuel Houtekins, 45; his wife Godelieve, 51, and their children, Laurent, 20, and Valerie, 19.
“They have been freed and moved to a friendly Arab country that we trust,” Khaled said at his office in Beirut’s Mar Elias Palestinian refugee camp.
Khaled said Belgium had agreed to release convicted Palestinian terrorist Nasser Saeed.
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