FED: Aid worker s wife rejects spying charges

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-1999
FED: Aid worker s wife rejects spying charges

CANBERRA, April 12 AAP - The wife of imprisoned Australian aid worker Steve Pratt today
declared her shock and horror at his confession on Serbian state television that he was a spy.

"I don't believe it," a distressed Samira Pratt told ABC radio.

"I think he's been told to say something. To show the people that he's safe or something.

"For God's sake, he's not, he's an aid worker."

Mrs Pratt was evacuated to Budapest at the start of the crisis, and is four months pregnant
with their first child.

She said she had mixed feelings about the broadcast, which provided the first concrete
proof her husband was still alive after almost two weeks since his disappearance in
Yugoslavia.

"(I felt) relief that I saw him on TV in one piece," she said.

"The other feeling is just horrified and shock that a man, a good man, is being treated the
way he's being treated."

Mrs Pratt said her husband's confession was clearly forced out under duress.

"I could tell that he'd been under extreme pressure, he's really strained," she said.

"I could tell that there's something going on there."

Mrs Pratt said she believed her husband might have made the confession to protect his
staff, or as an excuse to show people he was still alive."

"He would take the blame if there was anything, he doesn't want anyone to get hurt," she
said.

"He's a very noble man."

AAP ss/cfm/de

KEYWORD: KOSOVO PRATT SAMIRA

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