wood back in australia

Is Hilaly lying again (still) or is Hill telling porkies? Make up your own minds...Read the last two paras.

Snooker
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Wood back in Australia
By Sasha Shtargot, David Wroe and Ed O'Loughlin
Dubai
June 20, 2005 - 5:45AM


His Emirates flight from Dubai, which was due to land at Melbourne airport at 5.30am, was delayed in the air slightly, actually touching down at 5.43am.

A family spokesman told theage.com.au both Mr Wood's brothers, Malcolm and Vernon, and their respective wives witnessed the plane arriving.

Several DFAT officials are also at the airport.

"It's a pretty small group," the spokeman said.

It is not known if Mr Wood will make an appearance prior to a news conference, to be staged in a VIP room at the airport, at 7am.

Mr Wood, 63, was rescued from his kidnappers in Iraq last week after 47 days in captivity in Baghdad.

He is accompanied by his American wife Yvonne Given.

Mr Wood's family in Australia has hired a management company to process the media and business offers he has received since being liberated from captivity in Baghdad last week.

His family says the expatriate engineer has a right to profit from the story of his 47-day ordeal.

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AdvertisementThey will spend time with Mr Wood's family, and he is expected to meet Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as well as visit the Geelong Football Club. It is not known how long he will stay in Australia before returning to his home in California.

Mark Klemens, of the Melbourne-based firm Profile Talent Management, who was hired last Friday by the Wood family, yesterday refused to go into the offers Mr Wood had already received. "There's been a barrage of interest in his story from all over the world," he said.

"He has a story he wants to tell and that's really as far as it's got at this stage."

Vernon Wood defended his brother's right to make money from the story.

"I can't deny that Doug may want to benefit. Doug is not a well man, he's an ageing man and if in the fullness of time he can get some reward, I can't deny him that opportunity," he said.

He said he had spoken to his brother several times in the past two days. "He's sounding terrific. His own loveable, jovial self and he's ready to rock and roll. He seems to be in very good spirits and we hope that that continues," he said.

Meanwhile, conflicting claims as to how Mr Wood was rescued continued yesterday, with Muslim cleric Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali claiming the Australian engineer had been on the verge of being released.

But Defence Minister Robert Hill said there was no evidence Mr Wood was to be released and that the precise circumstances might forever remain a mystery.

Sheikh Hilali said he had brokered Mr Wood's release, which was due at 6pm on Wednesday - just hours after he was rescued by Iraqi soldiers.

Sheikh Hilali told ABC-TV that the house from which Mr Wood was rescued was a transit place and none of the men holding him were armed. He said Mr Wood was in the "safe custody" of the captors, who actually feared for the Australian's life when the raid began.

Senator Hill, while praising Sheikh Hilali's role, said the fact there was a gun fight suggested the captors had no intention of setting their hostage free.