Alan Johnston, the BBC reporter who was kidnapped on 12 March in the Gaza Strip was released today, on 4 July 2007 after 114 days in captivity. Johnston was handed over to officials of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, in the early hours of this morning.

His release is said to be the result of an intervention by the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the most senior group of Muslim clerics in the Gaza Strip, which recently issued a fatwa condemning his abduction. Johnston was kidnapped by the Army of Islam, an armed group who threatened to kill him if its demands for the release of Muslim prisoners in British custody were not met.

To find out more on this subject, click on the following links:

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mi...
  http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_...