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Gentiloni says aid workers ransom rumours 'just conjecture'

Italy continues to be 'on front line' against terrorism

Redazione Ansa

(ANSA) - Rome, January 16 - Rumours suggesting that Italy paid a ransom to free two young hostages kidnapped in Syria last summer were "just conjecture", Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Friday.
    The Italian government, like its predecessors and in line with international practice, is against paying ransom to free hostages, Gentiloni said in the Lower House after welcoming home aid workers Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo.
    The two women arrived in Rome early Friday after almost six months in custody. When their release was announced Thursday, opposition Northern League leader Matteo Salvini referred to media reports suggesting the Italian government paid a 12-million-euro ransom and denounced the practise.
    Italy has been on the front line against terror since the terror attacks on the United States in September 2001 and "won't take lessons from anyone on that", Gentiloni said as reported to the House on the situation.
    Rome will reaffirm this stand at an upcoming conference of the coalition fighting Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Syria and Iraq, he added.
    The women, wearing winter parkas and looking exhausted from their ordeal, were greeted with long hugs from their parents, family and friends, who drove down from Lombardy to meet the women.
    Marzullo, 21, and Ramelli, 20, had arrived in Syria since July 28 and were volunteering on health and water-related humanitarian aid projects.
    They were to be taken for medical check-ups in Rome on Friday as well as meeting investigators probing their kidnapping.
    The aid workers arrived in Rome at about 4:20 a.m. Friday after a three-hour flight from Turkey on an Italian military plane.
    Marzullo was greeted by her parents and brother while Ramelli was welcomed by her parents, her brother and his fiancée, as well as two school friends who are also aid workers.
   

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