Kidnapped! [Archives:2008/1220/Local News]

Ahmed Al-Haj
For the Yemen Times
SANA'A Dec. 28 ) Devastation was evident on the faces of Charles, Julia and her mother soon after they moved from the Germen Embassy to their home.

The sense of security was lost and anxiety hovered over the family. Julia's face was so pale that she looked way beyond her years.

A friend of Julia's family said that she and her parents are in need of psychological treatment to recover from the shock, especially given that the panic situation that befell them didn't allow them to disclose their ordeal in terms of physical and psychological suffering.

It is clear that the impressions of the family towards Yemen have changed after they were subjected to kidnapping, this is even clearer as they cannot disclose the circumstances of their ordeal.

Certain bodies have told them not to reveal about their circumstances. I couldn't have attained this information from them unless I had had a friend who is close to their family.

This is now the situation of the family members after five days of being kidnapped according to their friend who went to visit them at their villa located in Adhban St. in one of the grand neighborhoods in Sana'a last Saturday evening.

All members of the family particularly Charles and Julia are still perplexed about what happened to them after many years of security and stability.

It was a moment of kidnapping but the price was high as the operation rendered the Germens worried a lot as it came in complex security conditions. Information and warnings by Al-Qaeda had said that its upcoming operations would target western interests and subjects. Julia Tillie came to Yemen more than ten years ago. She loved Yemen a lot and encouraged her parents to visit it.

The parents visited Yemen several times and came back to Germany with cheery experience and good impressions.

The German Julia got married into the Spanish Charles who considers himself as “Yemeni”” as he usually says. Having spent around two decades in Yemen