An Italian held hostage since being kidnapped in 2016 on the Turkey-Syria border has been released, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said.
"Our fellow countryman Alessandro Sandrini has been liberated following coordinated action in overseas territory," Conte said in a brief statement Wednesday.
Italian press reports cited Sandrini's father as saying he was released in Syria. "My son is free. He is still in Syria but he is in the hands of the Carabineri. I am more than happy, it is the end of a nightmare," Gianfranco Sandrini said in a report on the La Repubblica website.
News of Allessandro Sandrini's kidnapping only surfaced in the Italian press in August last year, saying he had been seized in October 2016 while on holiday in Turkey. His mother broke the news blackout after receiving several phone calls from her son and at least one video showing him in an orange jumpsuit guarded by armed men.
"I beg you, help me, I am tired. They are going to kill me if the situation is not resolved quickly," he says in one video.
Rome prosecutors have opened an investigation into his kidnapping.
Media reports say it is expected that when he returns to his home town of Brescia, in the north, he will be confined to his residence because he is implicated in two criminal cases.
He faces one arrest warrant for handling stolen goods and another for a burglary in 2016 before he left for Turkey.
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