INLSA

Debbie Calitz, right, and Bruno Pelizzari

The Somali pirates who held a Durban couple hostage have sold them to another gang which has decreased the amount of the original ransom demand.

The gang is holding Bruno Pelizzari and Debbie Calitz captive with 21 other foreigners.

Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of aid organisation Gift of the Givers, said the couple had been sold by their original captors to another band of pirates and more recently had been sold again.

Sooliman said a Somali national, who is acting as a go-between, had made contact with the couple last week.

The Durban couple have been held hostage by Somali pirates since they were kidnapped in October 2010 while sailing to Richards Bay to see their first grandchild.

Their small yacht was attacked by 12 armed men and redirected to Baraawe, Somalia. Pirates asked for a multimillion-dollar ransom, but then reduced it to $4 million (R31m).

The last contact the two had with their family was in September, when their captors allowed Pelizzari to call his sister, Vera Hecht.

“We are in negotiations with the new captors – they are not aggressive and they say they have spent money buying the couple and for other expenses and they want to make a deal.

“The ransom has been substantially reduced to under $1 million.”

Sooliman said the go-between had seen Deborah in traditional Somali garb and that she spoke a few words in the native tongue.

Vera Hecht, said today that the family did not want to mention the actual figure of the ransom because negotiations were at a delicate stage.

She said Gift of the Givers were now facilitating the negotiations.

Hecht said although there were no pictures that proved the go-between had met with Bruno and Deborah, the family believed the meeting had taken place.

“We were told that they were physically fine; of course they are not coping because we were told they are thin.

“The pirates are just giving them enough food to survive,” she said.

Hecht said although the ransom had been reduced, the family’s fundraising efforts was nowhere near the amount being demanded.

“We have collected thousands from the SMS line we opened and we appreciate all the support we are getting from South Africans. We are relying on people to help us with this task,” she said.

Hecht said the family hoped for the negotiations to be complete soon so that the couple could finally return home.

She was given just three minutes to confirm the couple were still alive.