Peter Theo Curtis, Released by Al Qaeda's Syrian Branch, Flies Home to His ...

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

10:46 PM

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In: 2014, News, Top story, Update

Peter Theo Curtis, Released by Al Qaeda's Syrian Branch, Flies Home to His ... - New York Times

Middle East |Peter Theo Curtis, Released by Al Qaeda’s Syrian Branch, Flies Home to His Family

An American writer and freelance journalist held captive for nearly two years by Al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria returned to the United States late Tuesday after the government of Qatar brokered his release, according to his family.

The journalist, Peter Theo Curtis, 45, landed in Newark on a flight from Tel Aviv and transferred to a flight to Boston, where he was greeted by his mother, Nancy, according to a statement released by his family. Nancy Curtis had waged a 22-month battle to free her son, including a trip to Turkey to meet with a Qaeda financier, who demanded the return of prisoners held in an Iraqi jail in return for Mr. Curtis’s freedom.

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“I have been so touched and moved, beyond all words, by the people who have come up to me today — strangers on the airplane, the flight attendants and, most of all, my family — to say welcome home,” Mr. Curtis said in a statement. “I am also deeply indebted to the U.S. officials who have worked on my case. I especially want to thank the government of Qatar for intervening on my behalf.”

Peter Theo Curtis arrived in Newark on Tuesday night.

Mr. Curtis, the author of two nonfiction books, disappeared in October 2012, and it remains unclear to his family whether he was kidnapped shortly after crossing into Syria from the safety of Turkey or whether he was in fact taken across the border.

There had been no news about Mr. Curtis, a Vermont resident, until last summer, when an American photojournalist, Matthew Schrier, held in the same prison in Aleppo, Syria, escaped through a hole in the wall. Mr. Schrier, who had shared a cell with Mr. Curtis, confirmed that Mr. Curtis was alive and being held by the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s arm in Syria.

It was only in January that intermediaries for the kidnappers released a photograph of Mr. Curtis in captivity. Then a go-between agreed to meet Nancy Curtis in Istanbul, where he proposed a swap: her son for two Iraqi women, both wives of jihadists, being held in Iraqi jails.

Intermediaries would later ask for ransoms ranging from $3 million to $25 million, with no real success in the negotiations until the family reached out to Qatari officials, who succeeded in getting Mr. Curtis released.

Mr. Curtis, who publishes under the name Theo Padnos, was handed over to United Nations peacekeepers on Sunday in the Golan Heights, on the border with Syria.

Qatar has brokered the release for ransom of many Europeans held by Al Qaeda’s unit in Yemen. It seems the negotiations picked up pace after the execution in Syria last week of another American freelance journalist, James Foley. Mr. Foley was beheaded by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which until recently was part of the Nusra Front.

The American government has a strict no-ransom policy, and Obama administration officials said this week that the United States had not only not paid a ransom, but had also asked Qatar not to pay. Mr. Curtis’s family has said that although they were not privy to the details of the negotiations, they, too, were assured no cash had traded hands.

Mr. Curtis is one of the few Americans to leave Qaeda captivity through mediation. The group is currently holding at least two other Americans.

A version of this article appears in print on August 27, 2014, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: American Journalist, Released by Al Qaeda’s Syrian Branch, Flies Home to His Family.