Florence Aubenas

Florence Aubenas ( born February 6, 1961 in Brussels, Belgium ) is a French journalist who works for the Nouvel Observateur. Previously, she worked for the left-liberal daily Libération. She was with her Arabic translator kidnapped by Islamist kidnappers in Iraq in 2005 and was released after 157 days in captivity again.

Life

Florence Aubenas was born in Belgium, but has the French nationality. She is the daughter of an EU diplomat and a film critic. She trained until their closure in 1984 from the School of Journalism Centre de formation of journalistes in Paris.

She worked at the business magazine Le Nouvel ECONOMISTE. The experienced journalist has been active since 1986 in the left-liberal Libération. Among other Florence Aubenas was in war and crisis zones such as Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. As co -author Florence Aubenas has written several books, such as on the genocide in Rwanda, the mechanisms of the media market or on globalization (including with Miguel Benasayag ).

In February 2010, their review was published as a cleaning woman in France in the style Günter Wallraff in book form. The book has quickly become a best-seller and has also appeared in German translation.

Abduction

On January 5, 2005, she was kidnapped in Baghdad University with her interpreter Hussein Hanoun Al- Saadi. She worked on a documentary about refugees from Fallujah. On 1 March 2005 a 26 second long video kidnappers showed up at the Reuters news agency in Baghdad, on the Florence Aubenas was seen.

She had asked the French politician Didier Julia to show support for their release. In this video message, she said to poor health in English. During her detention, Florence Aubenas has received a lot of support.

The French Foreign Ministry announced that Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun Al- Saadi had been released on the evening of June 11, 2005 in Iraq. On the afternoon of June 12, 2005, she was flown by plane from Baghdad to Paris and met at Paris -Charles de Gaulle airport by the French President Jacques Chirac. According to statements from official sources no ransom had been paid.

Book

• Quai de Ouistreham. Éditions de l' Olivier, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-8792-9677-7 Plasters! My life in the dirt. Pendo, München 2010, ISBN 978-3-86612-282-6