Chechen kidnappers have released a 15-year-old Jewish teen-ager whom they had held captive since May.
Maj. Vyacheslav Izmailov, who has been working to free people held by Chechens, is believed to have played a leading role in last week’s freeing of Vladimir Fayil and three Russian soldiers.
More than 1,000 people are currently held by Chechen gangsters looking for ransom. Jews, especially Israeli citizens, are the most desirable prey because it’s widely believed that Israel, or the international Jewish community, will pay high ransoms for them.
Earlier this year, Fayil enrolled in the Na’aleh program, run by the Jewish Agency for Israel for youngsters who want to graduate from high school in Israel. But instead of leaving this summer for Israel, he was abducted May 12 in the city of Makhachkala in the Caucasus Mountains.
After being kept for 26 days in the region of Dagestan, he was taken across the border to Chechnya and held in the basement of a house.
Two months later, he was joined by the three soldiers.
After the ransom demanded for the prisoners went unpaid, the Chechen kidnappers threatened to pass the captives on to local Muslim extremists, who “would treat them far worse.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.