SANAA, Yemen, July 16 (UPI) -- A Dutch couple kidnapped in Yemen in June appeared in an Internet appeal for help, saying they feared they would be shot in less than two weeks.
"Family, media, people in the Netherlands, do something," reporter Judith Spiegel said while crying on the video uploaded to YouTube Saturday. "We are stuck here forever if we are not dead in 10 days. Do something people, do something."
Spiegel and her partner, Boudewijn Berendsen, were snatched from their house in Sanaa in early June, DutchNews.nl reported Tuesday. Spiegel works for various Dutch publications and reportedly teaches at the Lebanese university in Sanaa. Berendsen works for the insurance sector. Experts say the kidnappers may be seeking a ransom.
DutchNews.nl indicated there has been contact between Dutch authorities and the couple.
"We have a major problem," Spiegel said in Dutch in the video that contained English subtitles. "In the beginning we talked with the ambassador and we explained the conditions ... to resolve this situation. And up till now nothing has happened."
"We are very afraid," Berendsen said. "There must be a real solution."
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans posted on his Facebook page that kidnapping cases always have "our full attention. But I must add that speaking about this [sort of thing] in public seldom or never helps bring about a good solution."
