The family of kidnapped Italian
Jesuit priest Paolo Dall'Oglio on Monday called on his abductors
to reveal his fate, one year after he went missing in Syria.
"We want to hug him again, but we are also ready to mourn
him," his relatives said in the appeal, which they sent to ANSA.
A long-time promoter of interfaith dialogue in Syria, where
he had lived for 30 years, Dall'Oglio was expelled by Damascus
authorities in 2012.
He returned a year later to help mediate a hostage release
and a truce between warring factions in northern Syria,
according to activists who helped him cross the Turkish border
at the time.
Dall'Oglio was last heard from in a July 27, 2013, email to
his family from the northeastern Syrian city of Raqqa. He was
kidnapped sometime between then and July 29, on his way to an
undisclosed location along the Euphrates river.
Since then, conflicting and unconfirmed reports from
disparate sources have claimed he has been killed or
alternately, that he is being held by jihadists and is in good
health.
In the latest such report, well-informed sources recently
told ANSA that Dall'Oglio is allegedly being detained in the
province of Raqqa.
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