Wednesday March 28, 2018
Nigel Brennan, of Australia, speaks to reporters outside the courthouse after delivering his victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing for Ali Omar Ader in Ottawa on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Brennan and Canadian Amanda Lindhout were snatched by armed men in in Somalia while pursuing a story, the beginning of 15 months as hostages. PATRICK DOYLE / THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — A tearful Amanda Lindhout says she has crippling flashbacks and sometimes wakes up screaming due to her kidnapping ordeal in Somalia.
Lindhout tells a sentencing hearing for Ali Omar Ader that the abuse she suffered in captivity filled her with pain and self-hatred.
Ader, a 40-year-old Somalian national, is facing up to life in prison after being convicted of hostage-taking.
Justice Robert Smith ruled in December that Ader was a willing participant in the 2008 kidnapping of Lindhout, who was working as a freelance journalist near Mogadishu at the time.
The judge found little to believe in Ader’s testimony, saying it did not support his claim that he was forced into serving as a negotiator and translator on behalf of a gang who threatened to harm him and his family.
Lindhout, raised in Red Deer, Alta., and photographer Nigel Brennan of Australia were snatched by armed men while pursuing a story, the beginning of 15 months as hostages.