Sandrini freed in Syria

(ANSA) - Rome, May 22 - Alessandro Sandrini, a Brescia native who was taken hostage near the Turkey-Syria border in October 2016, has been released by an anti-government group near Idlib, the militia said Wednesday.
    The self-styled 'government of salvation' published photos of Sandrini, 32, on social network and said that he had been in the hands of a gang of criminals. Sandrini's father said in Brescia: "I can confirm it, my son is free, he's still in Syria but in the hands of our Carabinieri".
    "I'm over the moon," said Gianfranco Sandrini, it's the end of a nightmare, now I'm going to Rome, I hope I can speak to him on the phone tonight".
    Sandrini's kidnapping was only reported in December 2017, a year after he disappeared after travelling to Turkey in October 2016.
    Then, after four phone calls to his mother over the course of several months, a dramatic video was posted showing him in an orange jumpsuit and guarded by two men with AK-47s.