Freed European hostages went home finally

BERLIN , August 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – International arrest warrants are to be issued by Germany for the kidnappers of European tourists, released last week from six months of captivity in the Sahara desert.

The German authorities have collected a wealth of incriminating evidence against the abductors, including videotapes, according to Der Spiegel, a weekly German magazine.

Abderrezak – also known as "the Para" – is the main target for the arrest warrants from Germany 's federal prosecutors. He is the second-in-command of the largest Islamic movement in Algeria , the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

Abderrezak, an Algerian army renegade, claimed in a statement published in Algeria 's El Khabar daily newspaper that the GSPC had abducted the tourists from Austria , Germany , the Netherlands , Sweden and Switzerland in Algeria 's southern Sahara .

Berlin paid a ransom of five million euros (5.4 million dollars) for the hostages' release, which was delivered by a top foreign ministry official with small denomination notes withdrawn from Germany 's central bank, Der Spiegel reported in its Monday August 18.

The group claimed responsibility Friday, August 22, for the kidnapping of the 32 European Sahara trekkers.

There were 15 Germans among the 32 Europeans tourists abducted earlier this year as they were trekking in the Sahara desert and held hostage around the border between Algeria and Mali .

Six were among a group of 17 who were rescued May 13 when Algerian forces mounted an armed operation.

Another German hostage died of heat exhaustion in late June. Nine Germans were among the group of 14 who were released in Mali Tuesday, August 19.

The German foreign ministry has repeatedly declined to comment on whether it paid a ransom to the abductors.

But, according to Der Spiegel, a ransom was paid in small-denomination euro banknotes that came straight from the Bundesbank ( Germany 's central bank) and were taken over to Mali by German junior foreign minister Jurgen Chrobog, who led the negotiations on the German side.

It said diplomats in Mali claimed the money passed via an intermediary chosen by Libya and "neither through Malian nor German hands."

"It was clear from day one that they wanted money from our governments," the weekly quoted one of the former Dutch hostages, Arjen Hilbers, as saying.