January 31, 2010 10:21 PM
- Text
Video Seems to Show Captive British Couple
(CBS/AP)
A British couple who have been held hostage for more than three months are pleading for help in new video.
The video of the couple taken by Somali pirates and its date and location couldn't be independently verified by AP Television.
British broadcaster Sky News aired the footage of 59-year-old Paul Chandler and his wife Rachel. The pair were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, when they were kidnapped by pirates late last October.
In the video, both appear uninjured but frail and underweight. The couple claim that they've been separated and held in solitary confinement.
They ask for help to pay for their ransom, saying they're innocent people who've done no wrong. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband recently said the government won't get involved in any ransom payments, but, he says the government can't stand in the way of private citizens.
"They kept asking for money and took everything of value on the boat," Paul Chandler said in an October interview with British media, before the telephone connection was lost.
A pirate claiming to speak on behalf of the group holding the British couple had said shortly after the couple's capture that they want a $7 million ransom to release Paul and Rachel Chandler. The British government has said it would not pay a ransom.
The couple, who have been married for 28 years, took early retirement about three years ago and have spent several six-month spells at sea. Their voyages - which have taken them to the Greek islands, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Oman, Yemen, India, the Maldives and the Seychelles - have been chronicled on a blog.
The video of the couple taken by Somali pirates and its date and location couldn't be independently verified by AP Television.
British broadcaster Sky News aired the footage of 59-year-old Paul Chandler and his wife Rachel. The pair were heading to Tanzania in their yacht, when they were kidnapped by pirates late last October.
In the video, both appear uninjured but frail and underweight. The couple claim that they've been separated and held in solitary confinement.
They ask for help to pay for their ransom, saying they're innocent people who've done no wrong. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband recently said the government won't get involved in any ransom payments, but, he says the government can't stand in the way of private citizens.
"They kept asking for money and took everything of value on the boat," Paul Chandler said in an October interview with British media, before the telephone connection was lost.
A pirate claiming to speak on behalf of the group holding the British couple had said shortly after the couple's capture that they want a $7 million ransom to release Paul and Rachel Chandler. The British government has said it would not pay a ransom.
The couple, who have been married for 28 years, took early retirement about three years ago and have spent several six-month spells at sea. Their voyages - which have taken them to the Greek islands, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Oman, Yemen, India, the Maldives and the Seychelles - have been chronicled on a blog.
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