Officials report that the hostages were not harmed, and are now in an Austrian Hospital recovering.
Two Finnish tourists and an Austrian student who were taken hostage in Yemen in December, have been released to Omani authorities. A Yemeni official reported that, “The three Europeans were freed by local tribesmen on the border with Oman overnight Wednesday … They were kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants.”
According to reports, the three “were seized by masked gunmen in an electronics shop in the capital and moved to different locations around Yemen, winding up in Hawf, a village on the Omani border.” Hawaf residents eventually arrested the men who were holding the hostages and turned them over to the Omani government authorities.
The Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja had met with the president of Yemen, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in March to discuss the fate of the three being held, but nothing was resolved at that time.
Tumioja says that “the Finnish couple, Leila and Atte Kaleva, and Austrian Dominik Neubauer have not been harmed,” and have been flown to Austria and are in a hospital there. He also stated that Finland “did not pay a ransom for the hostages’ release,” but thanked the governments of Austria, Yemen and Oman for their cooperation over the 4 months the hostages were in captivity.