Italian hostage in Philippines freed after 6 months

(July 13, 2009) An Italian Red Cross official held hostage by Muslim rebels for nearly six months in southern Philippines was freed on Sunday. Eugenio Vagni, a 62-year old water and sanitation engineer, was abandoned by his captors at a remote village in Maimbung town on Jolo island early on Sunday and was fetched by soldiers and the vice governor of Sulu province in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines, the military said. Vagni was the last to be released among the three captives. He was taken to an army base for a medical check up and later flown to an air base in the southern port city of Zamboanga, where colleagues from the Red Cross were waiting for him. Vagni said the thought of seeing his family again kept him alive throughout his captivity, during which he had been threatened several times with beheading. Marking the 150th anniversary of the Red Cross, Pope Benedict XVI on June 24 reiterated his call for the release of Vagni. Earlier on March 30 the Holy Father had made a similar appeal for him and two others who were abducted with him.