Mali: French Former Hostage Lazarevic Denies Being Spy, Believes Freed for Ransom

Former hostage Serge Lazarevic has denied being a mercenary and said he was tortured while a prisoner of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) in northern Mali. His captors were more interested in money than religion, he told a French journalist on Saturday.

Lazarevic was held in the Sahara desert for three years, the first of them along with Philippe Verdon, who was captured with him, and later alone.

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