Kiran Randhawa
Thursday, March 04, 2010
The British couple held hostage by Somali pirates could be freed within 10 days, it emerged today.
Paul Chandler, 60, and his 56-year-old wife Rachel were kidnapped more than four months ago as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania.
Their captors demanded a £1.3 million ransom for the release of the couple from Tunbridge Wells and warned without the money the pair would be shot.
But a member of the Somali government claimed negotiations with the gang were now progressing rapidly and that they could be freed soon.
Professor Mohamed Omar Dalha, deputy speaker of the parliament, said they had appealed to the pirates, who are holding the couple in Haradheere, to release them without condition.