Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghan police freed a female German hostage from a Kabul neighborhood and arrested a group of kidnappers early today, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
The 31-year-old aid worker was freed during a raid in the western part of the capital not far from the restaurant where she was seized Saturday while dining with her husband, Zemary Bashari said. The woman’s husband was not abducted.
“A group of kidnappers were arrested,” Bashari said.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Berlin confirmed the woman was “in safety at the German Embassy” in Kabul.
On Sunday, Afghan television broadcast what it said was video of the woman, identified as Christina Meier, calling for the release of unspecified prisoners while being prompted by a man.
Police have said Taliban militants were not behind the woman’s brazen abduction.
Ali Shah Paktiawal, head of police criminal investigations in Kabul, ruled out involvement of the Taliban in the abduction but would not say who was responsible.
The woman and her husband, also a German, have worked for the Christian organization Ora International in Kabul since last September, said Ulf Baumann, a spokesman for the group.
Abduction fears have risen after 23 South Koreans and two Germans were taken hostage in separate incidents last month in Afghanistan.
One of the German men was shot to death. The other remains in captivity.
Two of the South Koreans were shot to death, and two were freed.
