we got it under control. 40 to 45 a year? translator: yes. but this case was different, the victim was a u.s. citizen. pepe contacted the levys two contact the american embassy in quito. when james made the call, he was put through to the top u.s. security official in ecuador, fernando masseuse. how big an alarm bell goes off when an american is being held and hostage? the u.s. government starts moving when an american is being held hostage. quickly? yeah. it s not unheard of for americans to be kidnapped in ecuador, but usually, they are quick jobs. a tourist in a taxi held for a few hours, forced to withdraw cash from atms. this case seemed far worse. god forbid that this is somehow associated with the farc in columbia, and the victim was going to be taken to a jungle and spent five years there. like betancourt? exactly. wednesday morning, october 21st, four days after elisa s kidnapping, agents arrived at
On May 26, 2023, Iranian intelligence officer Assadollah Assadi, a diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna who in February 2021 was convicted on terrorism charges in Belgium and sent to prison for 20 years, was released back to Iran. In return, Tehran freed a Belgian aid worker, Olivier Vendecasteele, who had been arrested in Iran in 2022, convicted of spying in Iran,