In a video published on YouTube recently, three men kidnapped in Mali last year by al-Qaeda say they are well. One of the men is South African Stephen Malcom McGown.

The three from South Africa, the Netherlands and Sweden were seized on November 25 2011 by gunmen who killed a fourth person as the group walked along a street in the northern Mali town of Timbuktu.

The Dutch citizen spoke alone in a room holding an envelope with the date “29.01.2012” written behind it, while the South African man and the Swedish man, were outside, surrounded by five armed gunmen.

According to Beeld, al-Qaeda in North Africa was demanding that Britain releases one of its members to an Arabic country in Africa, instead of to Jordania. If the demand was not met, al-Qaeda has reportedly said that McGown, who also has British citizenship, would be killed.

Earlier in the year, The Daily Mail reported that al-Qaeda militants offered to free McGowan in return for the release of Abu Qatada, a cleric who has been arrested in Britain for his ties to al-Qaeda. In that statement al-Qaeda said “‘We offer the British government an initiative to release its citizen Stephen Malcolm [Mr McGown’s forenames]… who is our prisoner, if it allows Sheik Abu Qatada to leave to one of the Arab Spring countries or any other country of his choice where he guarantees his freedom and, rights and dignity.”

[Source: Reuters, IOL Daily Mail]