Italian hostage in Philippines freed after six months

An Italian Red Cross official held hostage by Muslim rebels for nearly six months in the Philippines was freed on Sunday, saying he had almost lost hope of walking away from captivity. Eugenio Vagni, 61, was abandoned by his captors at a remote village in Maimbung town on Jolo island early on Sunday and was fetched by soldiers and Nur-Ana Sahidulla, vice governor of the province in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines, the military said. He was taken to an army base for a medical checkup and later flown to an air base in southern port city of Zamboanga, where colleagues from the Red Cross were waiting for him. "I thank all the people and the prayers that led to this happening because I was thinking that it will never happen," Vagni, weak and near tears and wearing a dark shirt with a Philippine Marines logo and blue jogging pants, told reporters at an air base several hours after his release. Officials said no ransom had been paid. But local news websites said Vagni was freed after the military agreed to free two wives of a senior Abu Sayyaf leader, part of the group that held Vagni in the rugged interior of Jolo since January. The women were arrested at a military checkpoint on Tuesday, the news reports said. They are now in the custody of Sahidulla, who was active in negotiations to free Vagni. The military denied it had agreed to an exchange of prisoners, saying pressure exerted by security forces contributed to the release. "Skillful negotiations and incessant pressure through relentless operations by members of the security forces won the release of Vagni," Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in a statement. He said the offensive against the Abu Sayyaf would continue. RANSOM? Sahidulla told local ABS-CBN television that a small amount of money was given to Vagni's captors for his "accommodation". "There was a minimal charge... about 50,000 pesos ($1,035; Dh3,798)," Sahidulla said. A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they were "very happy and relieved to hear" of Vagni's release. "We are very happy that Eugenio will soon be back with his family who has lived through a painful nightmare of almost six months," Anastasia Isyuk, spokesperson of the ICRC delegation in Manila, said in a statement. "We spoke to him on the phone and he's doing remarkably well, given the circumstances that he had been in captivity," she said. In Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Vagni had been released by his captors peacefully. "There was no blitz, no violent action that could have put the hostage's life at risk," Frattini said. "It ended in the best way," he said in an interview with Italian state television. Vagni, an engineer, and two other ICRC officials were taken hostage on January 15 after they inspected a sanitation project at a prison on Jolo. The others, Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba and Swiss national Andreas Notter, were freed in April . Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here .