Prague, Feb 9 (CTK) – The release of the sum paid for two Czech women abducted in Pakistan may threaten the rescue of the Czech man kidnapped in Libya, and the acknowledging of the swap of five Czechs for Lebanese Ali Fayad is bad as well, expert in terrorism Adam Dolnik told Tuesday’s issue of daily Pravo.
The Czech Republic has received a label of a very responsive negotiator, which may threaten Czech travelling abroad, he said.
Dolnik is a professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He is a negotiator and he helps train FBI negotiators, the paper writes.
The information leak is an enormous problem, Dolnik told another Czech daily, Lidove noviny.
“It certainly does not show professionalism of the Czech bodies, from which the information came,” he said.
The information allegedly leaked from the National Security Council board that comprises six ministers of the Czech government.
The officially released ransoms are the main indicator for abductors setting their demands in future, Dolnik told Pravo.
He rejected the argument that abductors can tell one another how much they received for abducted foreigners because the abductors do not trust one another as they mostly do not tell the truth.
About ten percent of the ransom demanded by the abductors is usually paid. Negotiations must start as soon as they release the sum, Dolnik said.
He told Pravo that he considered the information leak a part of a fight in Czech secret services because it seems no coincidence that the sum was released at a time when media focus on the controversial exchange in Lebanon.
Dolnik dismissed the information that one of the abducted Czech women tried to return to those who had taken her hostage in Pakistan, adding that this seems to be part of intelligence fights as well.
“Hana Humpalova went for a holiday to Turkey together with her family. To interpret this as an attempt at her return (to Pakistan) is nonsense,” he told LN.
Dolnik said speculations about Humpalova’s wish to return appeared among the members of Czech security forces some time ago and had no real basis.
The weekly Respekt wrote in its issue out on Monday that the Czech Republic paid six million dollars for the release of two women, Hana Humpalova and Antonie Chrastecka, who were abducted in Pakistan in March 2013. The women were released after two years.
Five Czechs who were reported missing in Lebanon, including an intelligence agent, returned home last week. On the same day, two terrorism suspects with Lebanese passports whose extradition was demanded by the USA were released from a Prague prison.
Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky said Lebanon’s condition for the release of the Czechs was that Fayad be not extradited to the United States.
A Czech working for an oil company in Libya was abducted last March. The daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote in January that Czech intelligence agents who sought his release contributed to the release of another hostage, a Serb man.
Former Czech civilian intelligence chief Karel Randak told Pravo that, unfortunately, it is common that nothing can remain secret in the Czech Republic.
Randak said the abductors know that countries will negotiate with them and will not let their nationals die. However, the abductors do not know what sum they can demand and they mostly simply make a guess, he added.
