Gerco van Deventer was kidnaped in 2017 in Libya and has been held captive for more than six years.
CAPE TOWN - A Gift of the Givers hostage negotiator has landed in Mali to arrange for the release of a Swellendam man.
Paramedic, Gerco van Deventer, has been held for more than six years after initially being kidnapped in Libya in 2017.The Gift of the Givers has been helping the family organise Van Deventer's safe return. The organisation's founder, Doctor Imtiaaz Sooliman: "We have decided to go back. My intermediary is actually in Mali. He landed there on Sunday morning. He's already spoken to people we've dealt with before."
Speaking to CapeTalk's John Maytham on Wednesday morning, Sooliman said that they had negotiated to pay R500,000 for Van Deventer's safe return, but that he could be released for free. “It has been history, recorded history, that once or twice people have been released without payment. There's factors for and against. Number one is the fact that he was bought, he wasn't captured by them directly."
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