Sandrini released in Syria say militia

(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. There has thus far not been any confirmation from Italian sources.
    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.
    In the video, Sandrini said they he feared his captors would kill him soon.
    "They have given me the chance to communicate for the last time," Sandrini said in the video released by The SITE intelligence group that monitors online jihadism.
    "I ask Italy to help me, to wrap up this situation quickly.
    "I've been in prison for two years and I can't stand it any more.
    "They have said that they are fed up, that they will kill me if things are not resolved soon.
    "I can't see a future. I don't know what to think... today is July 19, 2018".
    Sandrini left home in Brescia on October 3 2016, when he boarded a flight from the local Orio al Serio airport which took him via Istanbul to Adana, a Turkish town 180 knm from Aleppo.
    "I'm going on holiday," he told his family.