Taliban free Italian journalist held in Afghanistan (1st Lead)

Mar 19, 2007, 15:35 GMT

Rome - The Taliban have freed an Italian journalist held by the insurgents since March 4, the Italian government said Monday, confirming earlier reports out of Kabul.

'Daniele Mastrogiacomo has been freed and is in good condition,' Prime Minister Romano Prodi said in Rome.

Prodi said Mastrogiacomo was currently in a hospital run by Emergency, an Italian non-governmental organization, and that he expected him to return to Italy 'within a few days.'

The premier was speaking just minutes after the publication of a report by the Pajhwok Afghan News, which quoted a Taliban commander as saying Mastrogiacomo had been handed over to Italian officials in Afghanistan in exchange for the release of five Taliban prisoners.

Mastrogiacomo's release had been described as 'imminent' after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in Berlin that he expected the journalist to be freed during the course of the day.

'He should either be freed or in the process of being freed,' Karzai told reporters on Monday morning after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

An experienced war correspondent, Mastrogiacomo and his two Afghan guides were abducted on March 4 in the Nad Ali district of Helmand and accused of spying on behalf of British soldiers.

On Friday, the Taliban had extended an ultimatum for Mastrogiacomo but said they had killed the journalist's driver because they said he was 'a spy for foreign troops.'

In a videotaped message, the reporter had earlier appealed to the Italian premier to do everything in his power to secure his release.