Two Spanish journalists taken hostage in Syria by an Al Qaeda-linked group returned to Madrid in a military plane on Sunday after six months in captivity.
El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa, 49, and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, 42, were “freed and handed over to the Turkish military”, Espinosa called El Mundo’s offices on Saturday evening and said they were in good health, it added.
“Pure happiness,” wrote Espinosa’s girlfriend, the journalist Monica Garcia Prieto, on Twitter early on Sunday, without giving details. “Their relatives are feeling excitement and joy because this puts an end to a nightmare that has lasted six months,” a spokesman for their families, Gervasio Sanchez, said.
Espinosa, 49, and Vilanova, 42, were seized on September 16 as they tried to cross the Syrian border to Turkey, the latest of scores of journalists captured while covering Syria’s civil war.
There was no immediate word on whether any demands were made by their kidnappers or any ransom paid.
