Two hostages an Italian and an American, had been killed in a drone strike in January in Pakistan by the Al Qaeda captors, who reportedly received ransom money of $250,000 from the family of the American captive Dr. Warren Weinstein in 2012.
The captors apparently continued to negotiate for weeks after the 73-year-old had been killed in the strike, according to the reports of a Pakistani mediator.
The mediator also informed that the after the strike, the captors threatened to hand over Weinstein over to the ISIS, not giving any clue to the family that he had already been dead.
A year after the capture, the ransom money had been given to the captors in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan. Even after the money had been delivered, Weinstein never showed up, as the mediator confirms. A helicopter had been assigned by Pakistani authorities to safely fly Weinstein to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
The kidnappers, although, not once claimed they were with the Al Qaeda had changed their demands. At one point, they made a proposal for trading Weinstein with a U.S. trained Pakistani scientist who had been serving an 86-year sentence in prison in the U.S. for attempting to kill American soldiers and FBI agents stationed in Afghanistan. They had also offered to trade militants in the custody of Pakistani security forces.
The family of Weinstein admitted on Friday that they did whatever was required to rescue him but did not discuss any further detail on the topic. A spokesman from Weinstein’s family had said that Weinstein’s wife had spoken to her husband in a “proof of life” telephone call before the money had been delivered to the captors.
According to the mediator, Weinstein was able to speak the official language of Pakistan, Urdu and had gotten along with his captors.
Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto have been killed accidently in January in a drone strike targeting Al Qaeda members in a compound in Pakistan close to the Afghan border.
