Nicolas Hénin is one of the four French reporters freed on Saturday after being held hostage for 10 months by radical Islamist rebels in Syria, reports FRANCE 24
He gave FRANCE 24 an exclusive account about the conditions of his release from captivity.
French journalist Nicolas Hénin, who was released on Saturday after a 10-month detention in Syria, told FRANCE 24 that his release was "clearly coordinated" with Turkish military personnel across the border.
“Our abductors directed us towards a position of the Turkish military, where we were expected”, said the 37-year-old journalist in an exclusive interview before catching a flight back to France.
Nicolas Hénin, Edouard Elias, Didier Francois, and Pierre Torres were abducted by radical Islamist groups in northern Syria in June 2013. Footage of the journalists broadcast on Turkish television after their release showed them looking unkempt, with beards and long hair, but they appeared to be in good health.
“All four of us crossed the border with our hands in our pockets, we were not wearing any blindfold” Hénin told FRANCE 24, contradicting earlier Turkish media reports alleging that the four hostages were abandoned in a no-man land’s near the border wearing blindfolds and with their hands bound.
“Our release was a real surprise”, said Hénin, who writes for the French weekly Le Point magazine.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.