Hopes rise for Jesuit snatched in Syria

An Italian Jesuit priest who disappeared last month in eastern Syria might still be alive, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday, reports Reuters.

The British-based monitoring group, speaking almost a week after it said he had been killed by al Qaeda-linked rebels, cited sources close to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) disputing assertions by local activists that Father Paolo Dall’Oglio had been killed while in the custody of the Islamist ISIL rebels.

Dall’Oglio, who supports the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, disappeared in the rebel-held city of Raqqa on July 29. Activists initially said he was kidnapped by ISIL fighters, although some later said he had met them to negotiate a truce with Kurdish brigades.

It was not immediately possible to confirm this latest report. The Observatory called on those holding Dall’Oglio to produce evidence that he is alive.

Dall’Oglio served for three decades at the Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian, or Deir Mar Musa, before being expelled from the country in 2012. 

A Western diplomat said Dall’Oglio crossed into Syria from Turkey last month.