World

Tour Guide Releases Hostages

March 13, 2001 / 10:42 PM EST / AP

An Egyptian tour guide holding four German tourists in a bid to win custody of his children from his German wife surrendered to police on Thursday (late Wednesday ET), security sources said.

They said the four hostages were unharmed and the kidnapper had been taken into custody.

The kidnapper, identified as Ibrahim Ali el-Sayyed Moussa, had abducted the four men on Monday in or near the southern town of Luxor to try to force the return of his two children from Germany.

The sources said Moussa, 45, gave himself up as a result of negotiations for the safe release of the hostages. No further details were immediately available.

Moussa spoke briefly to news wire services by mobile phone several times on Wednesday morning. He said he had spoken to his wife, Heike Ritter, in Germany by phone on Tuesday and that she had told him she was willing to bring the two youngest of their children, seven-year-old Kerim and three-year-old Rami, back to Egypt.

"Then two hours later, she called back and said she needed time to think. She admitted the German government had pressured her not to come," he said. "If you are calling me a kidnapper, why not call them (the German government) kidnappers?

"By what right does the German government refuse to let me see my children?" he asked in a voice cracking with emotion.

"Where is the justice in them not permitting Egyptian children to leave Germany and return to their father? How can they separate a father from his children?"

Egyptian police said Moussa's German wife returned to her home country with the two young boys a year-and-a-half ago following a marital dispute. Their eldest child, a daughter in high school, was in Egypt with her father. The couple married in 1991, according to police.

Luxor, about 280 miles south of Cairo, is home to the ancient temples of Luxor and Karnak and the nearby Valley of the Kings complex where Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered.

Moussa, reportedly armed with a handgun and an unidentified explosive device, kidnapped the four on Monday near Luxor. He complained on Wednesday he has had little sleep since then.

Moussa, who said he has not seen his sons in nine months, at one point hinted he would kill the hostages.

The four Germans, aged 25 to 27, arrived in Luxor on March 6 and checked into the three-star Geddis Hotel on March 9, according to Ehab Geddis, the hotel owner. Geddis last saw them on Monday morning. They were supposed to check out Tuesday.

Hagag Hafez, a hotel receptionist, identified the men as: Peter Novotnick, Christoph Paing, Ralf Lane, and Marco Wedekind. Their names were taken from their passports, Hafez said.

Ahmed el-Mekkawi, finance manager at Cairo Express, the tour company where Moussa worked, said his colleague was popular among the tourists.

"He received many letters from them thanking him for his services," said el-Mekkawi. b>"He is a quiet and calm man."