World : 2 Hostage Girls Return to France
PARIS — Two French girls held hostage in Lebanon for 13 months returned home today, six days after their captors--the Palestinian guerrilla group commanded by Abu Nidal--first promised them freedom. Left behind in the hands of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council were their mother, Jacqueline Valente; five Belgians also captured aboard the yacht Silco; and a baby sister born in captivity.
Marie-Laure Betille, 7, and her 6-year-old sister, Virginie, landed at a military base in Istres, near Marseilles, in a government plane with their father, Pascal Betille, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said. They came from the Libyan capital of Tripoli, where the girls were handed over to French officials.
The guerrilla group’s spokesman said the release was a “gift . . . in the name of the children of Palestine, the children of the revolution of the stones, on the occasion of Christmas and New Years.” He referred to the uprising against the Israelis.
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