Italy paid a ransom of 525,000
dollars for the release of Bruno Pelizzari, who was kidnapped by
Somalian pirates in 2010 together with South African Debbie
Calitz and freed in 2012, said The Guardian on Thursday, citing
a leaked spy agency document.
The Guardian said the document was written by a South
African intelligence officer and marked "secret", and said the
Italian intelligence agency AISE paid the ransom.
The document said AISE, Somalian secret service agency
SNSA, and the hostages "agreed to inform the media and public
that the release of the hostages was the result of a successful
rescue operation by the Somali security forces", The Guardian
said.
The document is part of a series of correspondences between
international secret service agencies obtained by Arab news
media Al Jazeera, which agreed to share them with the British
daily.
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