Father Paolo Dall'Oglio in a file picture
(ANSAmed) - ROME - Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Friday that the government could not confirm media reports that Paolo Dall'Oglio, a Jesuit priest who went missing in Syria in July 2013, is alive and recently moved in a new prison run by militant Islamist group ISIS between Raqqa and Aleppo in the north of the country.
"Unfortunately, it does not seem that there is confirmation of this news," Gentiloni told State broadcaster RAI.
After living for over 30 years in Syria and working tirelessly to foster dialogue between Muslims and Christians, including through the monastic community he founded north of Damascus, Father Paolo Dall'Oglio was expelled in June 2012 by the Syrian regime after expressing support for the UN peace plan proposed by the special envoy to the country at that time, Kofi Annan. In June 2013 he returned to the northern part of the country, in Raqqa, held by jihadists from the Islamic State, to attempt a difficult mediation for the release of detained Syrian activists. Several sources said he was captured by militants at the end of that month .
Many contradicting reports since then claimed he had been killed or was in good health, but no evidence to support either was provided. Last June well-informed sources told ANSA that the Roman Jesuit was allegedly being detained in the province of Raqqa. (ANSAmed).
