A Dutch humanitarian worker who was abducted in southern Russia seven months ago is alive, a regional police official said Wednesday, while the organization employing the victim accused Russian authorities of obstructing resolution of the case. Adilgerey Magomedtagirov, the interior minister of the Russian republic of Dagestan, said that the results of the investigation so far indicated that Arjan Erkel is alive, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported. Erkel, 33, was abducted in August in Dagestan, where he headed the Northern Caucasus mission of Medecins Sans Frontieres, known in English as Doctors Without Borders. Erkel is the second employee of the group to be taken hostage in southern Russia. In January 2001, U.S. citizen Kenneth Gluck was held by unidentified gunmen in Chechnya for 25 days. Erkel’s kidnapping also followed the July abduction in Chechnya of Russian aid worker Nina Davidovich. She was released in January. Full Story
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