[2] In the kidnapping incident, Prima TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, cameraman Sorin Mişcoci, and Ovidiu Ohanesian, a journalist working for the newspaper România Liberă, were abducted on March 28, 2005 in Baghdad, where they were covering the Iraq War.
[3] On April 1, the kidnappers transferred the three journalists to the Mouadh Ibn Jabal Brigade, who locked them in the same cellar where Florence Aubenas, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, and five other hostages were held.
[1] He would then unblock his bank accounts, which had been frozen as part of the financial investigation, pay a fictitious ransom, and become a "national hero" when the hostages were released.
It has been speculated that he left on July 12, 2006 from the Black Sea port of Midia, aboard a freight boat transporting young rams to the Middle East.
[1] In 2006, Marie Jeanne Ion, Sorin Mişcoci, and Ovidiu Ohanesian filed a civil suit against Omar Hayssam, each one asking for €2 million in damages for the trauma caused by their captivity; on June 13, 2007, the Bucharest Appeals Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.