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ZUMA Press photographer abducted in Afghanistan
On 12 October, five armed men recently abducted the Italian photojournalist Kash Gabriele Torsello, a photographer and convert to Islam working for the American agency ZUMA Press, on a bus journey between Lashkar-Gah and Kandahar. The Taliban said they had nothing to do with the kidnapping.
Five days later, his abductors contacted the authorities and said they would release him in exchange for Abdul Rahman, a Moslem who has converted Christianity and was able to leave the country and obtain asylum in Italy. The ultimatum for the exchange expires in Monday, October 23.
If the “renegade” Abdul Rahman is exchanged by Italy, he faces the death penalty in Afghanistan since radical Islamists regard die conversion of a Moslem to another religion as a capital crime. His case created quite a stir in the Western media earlier this year.
It would seem that Torsello has in the meantime been allowed to make several telephone calls to a local medical centre, taking the opportunity to say he is fine in spite of being moved around by his abductors.
Torsello, who has a wife and child, lives in London. He was spending about a month in a supposedly peaceful area of southern Afghanistan in order to document the situation in the country.
Web: Torsello's bio at Zuma Press - Update from photographer Dan Sumption - Torsello's website
[Update 10/20/06] PDN has published an update written by David Walker stating that the kidneppers have "imposed a second condition for his release, demanding on October 18 that Italy withdraw its troops as a condition for his release, according to Zuma president Scott McKiernan. Italy’s defense minister has reportedly ruled out a troop withdrawal, however." Click here for the full story.
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