Two Jewish Agency officials kidnapped in Algeria last month by Algerian rebels are “alive and in good health,” Serhat Abbass, an Algerian nationalist leader, said here today. Jacob Hassan, director of the Jewish Agency in Algerian, and Raphael Ben Gera, an Israel emissary, were kidnapped February 17 while traveling on a business trip in a taxi driven by an Arab. French security forces have been hunting for them since.
Mr. Abbass, who returned to his Swiss exile from Cairo this week-end, said he was in touch with the situation, but added “it is not within my province and I have nothing new to report except that the men concerned are alive and in good health.” Asked whether he was involved in negotiations for the release of the two captives, he said the matter was not in his hands but in those of the National Liberation front, the rebel organization.
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