Larnaca, Cypus, July 3, 2009: This morning, the five kidnapped passengers from Bahrain left Israel via a private jet sent by their king. They will hold a press conference in Bahrain tonight at 7 pm Bahrain time. The two Al Jazeera journalists will be freed sometime today, their equipment given back to them but not the footage of the Israeli terrorist frogmen boarding the boat and roughing up some of the passengers.
All passengers are fine, but they are still imprisoned by a country that illegally boarded their small boat, towed it, and confiscated the supplies that had already been inspected in Cyprus.
The following message has come from Captain Denis inside the prison cell in Israel where he is being held, along with 11 more of our passengers, including former Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Peace Laureate, Mairead Maguire.
"At least four of us went to a hearing yesterday, and we were told we were going to be deported. However, they did not tell us where we were going or when. The boat has been impounded and all of the charts stolen by the Israeli navy. The people at the prison told us we would get all of our stuff back today, but, so far, that has not been true.
It appears as though the Israeli government is drilling for natural gas in the buffer zone. That gas belongs to the people of Gaza. It seems to be one of their reasons for stopping us, perhaps they're worried that we may go back and tell the world what we have seen."
When asked if he thought the Free Gaza Movement would go again, his response was, "Of course. We're going to get another boat, or more than one boat and we will head toward Gaza again."