{"id":10343,"date":"2012-04-30T08:30:01","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T06:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/update-1-al-qaeda-offers-to-free-briton-if-cleric-released\/"},"modified":"2012-04-30T08:30:01","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T06:30:01","slug":"update-1-al-qaeda-offers-to-free-briton-if-cleric-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-al-qaeda-offers-to-free-briton-if-cleric-released\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-Al Qaeda offers to free Briton if cleric released"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Adds background)<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">DUBAI, April 30<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Al Qaeda&#8217;s North African branch<br \/>\nhas offered to free a British hostage in return for the release<br \/>\nof radical preacher Abu Qatada but warned London against handing<br \/>\nhim over to his native Jordan, a statement on an Islamist<br \/>\nwebsite said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The initiative to the British government is to release its<br \/>\ncitizen Stephen Malcolm, who also has South African nationality,<br \/>\nif it deports Abu Qatada to one of the &#8216;Arab Spring&#8217; countries,&#8221;<br \/>\nsaid the statement, which could not be verified, from Al Qaeda<br \/>\nin the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Britain ignores this offer it will bear the consequences<br \/>\nof handing Abu Qatada to the Jordanian government,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen have seen changes of<br \/>\nleadership after uprisings last year known as the Arab Spring.<br \/>\nThe revolts have empowered Islamists who were often persecuted<br \/>\nby previous governments.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Malcolm is thought to be one of nine Europeans, including<br \/>\nsix French nationals, seized by the al Qaeda branch in Mali and<br \/>\nNiger since September 2010. It said in January it would kill<br \/>\nthem if France and its allies attack its bases in northern Mali.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The group has said the others are from Sweden and Holland.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Africa&#8217;s Sahel region has become a haven for al Qaeda-linked<br \/>\noperatives taking advantage of the vast and lawless area, and is<br \/>\nbelieved to have raked in millions of dollars in ransoms.<br \/>\nMauritania&#8217;s army has launched a series of attacks on AQIM bases<br \/>\ninside Mali in recent months.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Britain said this month it would resume plans to deport Abu<br \/>\nQatada to Jordan, where he has been convicted in absentia of<br \/>\ninvolvement in militant plots.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Adds background) DUBAI, April 30 (Reuters) &#8211; Al Qaeda&#8217;s North African branch has offered to free a British hostage in return for the release of radical preacher Abu Qatada but warned London against handing him over to his native Jordan, a statement on an Islamist website said on Monday. &#8220;The initiative to the British government [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}