France Denies Report It Paid for Hostages
The French government repeated Monday that it never paid for the release of its citizens held hostage in Iraq, denying a report in The Times of London that France, Germany and Italy paid millions of dollars in secret ransom. “As French authorities indicated at the moment of the release of the hostages, there has been no payment of ransom,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told The Associated Press. Full Story