The kidnappers of Fr. Pius Affas and Fr. Mazen Ishoa have reneged on an agreement to release the two Iraqi priests and are instead demanding a larger ransom for their freedom. Via Times Online:
The group is understood to have agreed to free the hostages but Middle East Concern said today that the captors had withdrawn from the deal and were demanding a larger ransom.
The priests received threatening letters two months ago, warning they would face attacks if they didn’t leave the area, the Christian group said.
Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, based in Syria, has been involved in efforts to secure their release. He told Misna news agency that the pair were “still in the hands of their captors” today. The Archbishop said he had spoken to the kidnappers on Sunday evening. "They called us on the phone and asked for a ransom payment of $1million – an amount that is not within our possibilities” he told the agency.
Father Affas has been a priest for over 40 years and is a professor of Biblical Studies at a seminary in Mosul. Father Ishoa, ordained to the priesthood only last month, is from a Christian village south of the city. They were taken on Saturday afternoon as they travelled to the Church of Our Lady of Fatima in al-Faisaliya.
This time last year, another priest, Fr. Boulous Iksander, was kidnapped and murdered in Mosul. His abductors demanded that Fr. Iksander's church, St. Ephram's Syrian Orthodox Church, place signs denouncing the Pope's Regensburg speech around Mosul, and pay a $350,000 ransom. The price was later reduced to $40,000, which the congregation raised and paid. Despite this, Fr. Iksander's beheaded, dismembered body was found 2 days later.
Please pray for the safe release of these two priests, and for the safety of the now-tiny Christian minority who are suffering for their faith in Iraq.
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Two Priests Kidnapped in Mosul
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