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British couple to arrive home this evening after more than a year held hostage by Somali pirates
Paul and Rachel Chandler are heading to the UK today after their release by Somali pirates who held them hostage for over a year.
They were flying from Nairobi, Kenya, and are expected to arrive at Heathrow this evening. The retired couple from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, who were abducted as they sailed their yacht off the Seychelles in October 2009, were set free after a ransom was reportedly paid for their release.
They were handed over to local officials in the Somali town of Adado on Sunday after 388 days in captivity, before being flown to the capital Mogadishu and on to Nairobi, where they spent their first night of freedom at the British high commission.
Euphoria for the couple was tempered, however, by the news that Paul's father died in July while they were still in captivity.
The couple were seized during a round-the-world sailing trip when their 38ft yacht, the Lynn Rival, was stormed by armed men.
"We're fine. We are rather skinny and bony but we're fine," said Paul Chandler, 61. "The worst time was when we had to abandon our home and boat ... in the ocean."
A Somali official told Channel 4 that some of the couple's ransom money had come from the British government – a claim vehemently denied by David Cameron.
A Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister had phoned Paul Chandler and expressed "joy at their release and praised their bravery".
Cameron gave assurances the government would give the couple all the support they needed and would reunite them with their family soon, the spokesman added.
He also stressed no UK aid money to Somalia had been diverted to help pay the couple's ransom.
"The government has a policy on ransom payments, which is we don't do them," he said.
As attention focused on how the Chandlers were released, reports emerged that a former minicab driver from east London oversaw the transfer of more than £280,000 to the Somali kidnappers.
Dahir Kadiye, 56, a Somali Briton from Leytonstone, claims to have been at the heart of negotiations with the pirates. He was filmed by Channel 4 News meeting the Chandlers at a release point in the desert on Saturday afternoon.
He claims to have taken the job as hostage negotiator six months ago because his children had told him they felt ashamed at school after a broadcast on the British couple's plight.
He said he secured their release "on humanitarian grounds".
The mayor of Adado, Mohamed Aden, suggested the couple had been on the verge of release in June after a ransom payment of "somewhere like" $450,000 (around £280,000) had been paid but he said the pirates held out for more.
He told Sky News that a final payment of "somewhere like" $350,000 (around £218,000) had been made which finally secured their release, down on an initial demand of $500,000 or $600,000.
Friends and family expressed their delight that the couple were finally heading home. Jacqueline Charlton, a neighbour, said she was looking forward to their homecoming.
"It's been such a long time. They've been given a punishment worse than most criminals," she said.
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