Susanne Osthoff

Susanne Kristina Osthoff (born 7 March 1962) is a German archaeologist who had worked in Iraq from 1991 until being taken hostage there on 25 November 2005. She was freed by her captors on 18 December 2005.

Biography
Osthoff grew up in Grafing (Bavaria) with two brothers and one sister. She studied Near Eastern archaeology and Semitic languages at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

After her studies, she moved to Iraq to work in archaelogy, including the excavation of the 4,000 year-old Islin site. She subsequently married an Iraqi Sunni Musilm of the Shammar Tribe and converted to Islam.

Abduction
On 25 November, Osthoff and her driver vanished in Northern Iraq. Two days later, a video clip was released showing the two captives surrounded by masked, armed men who read a statement threatening to kill the hostages unless the German government stopped cooperation with the Iraqi government.

Susanne Osthoff and her driver were freed from their captors on 18 December 2005.

A spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry, Marin Jager, confirmed that "the German government and the German embassy in Baghdad were involved" in securing Osthoff's release. However, German government officials declined to comment on whether they paid a ransom for her release.

Controversies
In her first interview after release, Osthoff appeared in a full niqab and told Al Jazeera that the kidnappers assured her she was safe and that they knew she was "Iraq's friend." She expressed her further comfort that she "knew [she] was not in the hands of criminals."

While she was showering at the German embassy in Baghdad immediately after her release, officers from the BND found "several thousand dollars" rubberbanded to Osthoff. The serial numbers on the bills matched those on the money paid to secure her release.

Osthoff claims that the money was given to her by her kidnappers as "compensation" for her ordeal and restitution for £9,500 that was stolen from her when she was kidnapped.

Some believe that Germany traded the terrorist Mohammed Ali Hamadi, who was convicted of the murder of US Navy sailor Robert Stethem during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, for Susanne Osthoff's release. The German government has denied that her release was linked to Hamadi's.