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SA HOSTAGE OFFERED FOR QATADA RELEASE SA banker Stephen McGown has been held by Al-Qaeda operatives since November
A
by STAFF REPORTER l-Qaeda has offered a deal to release a South African hostage in return for radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada’s freedom. According to The Telegraph, South African banker Stephen McGown (37) was kidnapped last November with a Swedish and a Dutch national from a restaurant in Timbuktu, Mali. A German was killed in the struggle. McGown, who holds dual South African and British nationality, is believed to have been on a motorcycle tour through Europe and Africa with a Dutch friend before settling with his wife in South Africa, where his parents live. McGown and his wife Catherine (32) lived for several years in Putney, and he is thought to have worked for the London branch of South African bank Investec. He is allegedly one of nine Europeans seized by al-Qaeda operatives in the restive West African countries of Mali and Niger since September 2010. A statement referring to McGown by his middle name of Malcolm appeared on an Islamic website saying he would be released if Abu Qatada was sent to an “Arab Spring country” rather than to Jordan, where he faces imprisonment over terrorist charges. American monitoring service SITE attributed the statement to al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate,
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which emerged from Islamic groups fighting the Algerian government in the 1990s. “The initiative to the British Government is to release its citizen Stephen Malcolm, who also has South African nationality, if it deports Abu Qatada to one of the ‘Arab Spring’ countries,” the statement reads. “If Britain ignores this offer it will bear the consequences of handing Abu Qatada to the Jordanian government.” The statement was released days after al–Qaeda said it would “open the gates of evil” on Britain if Qatada was sent to Jordan. A judge referred to Qatada as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe. The cleric has been fighting British attempts to deport him for 10 years and is being held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in south-east London. The terror suspect recently failed in his bid to have the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights rule on his deportation battle. McGown’s parents said five months after his capture they had had no contact from the kidnappers, not even a ransom demand. “We’ve heard not a word, absolutely nothing,” said his mother Beverley. She said they heard about the online statement from British news reports. “In general we have had very little information and it’s obviously quite traumatic for all of us.”
INSIDE: Kirstenbosch returns to Chelsea show | p7 Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden will bring its 37th botanical display to this week’s Chelsea Flower Show in London – and hopes to bring home the gold again.
Feast of Charlize Theron films next week| p9 Next week will see the UK opening of not just one but two blockbuster films starring our very own Charlize Theron. We bring you previews of ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Snow White and The Huntsman’.
WINE O’CLOCK: This weekend will be filled with South African fun as the renowned Pinotage on Tap festival, held annually by Diemersfontein Wines, goes beyond SA for the first time with a special edition in West Sussex. Tickets on www.computicket.com. Also this weekend is the Hunter’s South African Festival in Dorset www.huntersfestival.co.uk. See page 2 or www. thesouthafrican.com/events for more info on these and other events.
“We heard that the families of the other men were contacted, but there has been absolutely no contact with
us yet,” his father Malcolm added. He said the bike trip was to be his son’s “final adventure”.
SA Power 100 : Errol Damelin | p13 The South African founder of mini-lending company Wonga tells us why he made the shift from investment banker to entrepreneur..