Journalist and her baby freed from terror group

A GERMAN journalist who gave birth to a child while being held hostage by jihadists in Syria has been released.

Janina Findeisen was pregnant when she was kidnapped while reporting from Syria in October 2015. Two months later she gave birth to a son.

The 27-year-old freelance reporter and her child were released on Wednesday and they have both safely crossed the border into Turkey, the German foreign ministry said. The kidnapping was not reported at the time under a news blackout. It is not clear whether any ransom was paid to secure Ms Findeisen’s release. The German government maintains that it does not pay ransoms for hostages.

The foreign ministry said in a statement: “The government is relieved at the positive outcome of this case given the extraordinarily difficult situation in Syria.”

Much about the kidnapping is unclear, including who was holding Ms Findeisen. The journalist has not been officially named, and German officials have declined to give further details.

She was first identified in a report in Germany’s Focus magazine in February, which said she was being held by “a criminal faction within the Nusra Front”, a jihadist group affiliated to alQaeda. The group had demanded a €5 million (£4.3 million) ransom for her release, according to the magazine. But the Nusra Front said in a statement on Wednesday it had nothing to do with the kidnapping and claimed they had freed Ms Findeisen and her baby.