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Sun, 28 Apr, 2013 12:17:15 AM FTimes News Desk, April 28
 People walking in front of the camera shop in Sanaa from where the Finnish couple and Austrian national were abducted. Photo - AFP/Lehtikuva A Yemen journalist has claimed he had seen the Finnish couple abducted along with an Austrian friend from the Yemen capital Sanaa on December 21 last year, news agency STT reported quoting Yle on Saturday.
The Yemen Post Editor Hakim Almasmari told Yle that a reporter of the newspaper had seen the Finnish couple this week.
The editor, based on the information given by the reporter, said the physical condition of the Finnish couple seemed to be good, said the Yle report.
Almasmari also said negotiations for release of the abducted would be held with the tribal leaders acting as mediators.
The Finnish couple and their Austrian friend who were abducted from a camera shop in Sanaa and since then to date no significant development has been there in the process of freeing them from the abductors.
Although the abductors on February 22 released a video on Youtube containing a demand for ransom to release the Austrian national, nothing could be known about the whereabouts of the Finnish couple.
Earlier, the Finnish authorities had taken several initiatives and maintained communication with the Yemen government and urged for necessary measures to rescue the couple.
Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja on March 31 visited Yemen and held meetings with government high-ups, including the president, on developments in the Finnish couple abduction case.
After holding discussions with Yemen President Abdrabuh Hadi Mansur and the foreign and interior affairs ministers, Tuomioja told STT over telephone that an incident like abduction needed patient investigation.
In the video footage the Austrian national Dominik Neubauer said that he would be killed, if the ransom was not paid to a Yemeni tribe within a week.
He said he was in good health, although he was seen to speak at gunpoint.
The Austrian authorities, however, did not respond to the call made by the kidnappers for ransom.
The authorities said the three were later sold to al-Qaeda members and transferred to the small town of al-Manaseh in the south of the capital.
Earlier, the tribal leaders in the southern suburbs of Sana’a told the Yemen Post that the release of the three foreigners would take anywhere between a week and two months, depending on when the two sides agree on the ransom.
‘At times it does not only involve money, it involves the release of prisoners and this case seems like both money and prisoners will be needed to ensure the release of the foreigners,’ a tribal leader told Yemen Post.
He said if negotiations took longer than a month, the deal would be somewhat complicating and would involve more for the release.
Tribesmen usually kidnap foreigners to pressure the authorities to meet demands, including ransom, releasing detainees, or supplying some services to their areas.
Several kidnappings have been reported this year amid alarming security disorder deepened by power vacuum as well as the unrest that began last year. More News
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