{"id":61905,"date":"2024-02-14T14:20:42","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T05:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/feb\/14\/kidnapped-new-zealand-pilot-phillip-mehrtens-release-west-papua-rebels"},"modified":"2024-02-14T14:20:42","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T05:20:42","slug":"west-papua-rebels-release-video-of-kidnapped-former-jetstar-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=61905","title":{"rendered":"West Papua rebels release video of kidnapped former Jetstar pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Phillip Mehrtens requests ebook reader with \u2018as many English books as possible\u2019 as well as saying he is being treated well<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/live\/2024\/feb\/14\/australia-politics-live-food-banks-ai-tasmania-election-aged-care-treaty-question-time-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-labor-coalition-greens\">Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl\">morning and afternoon news emails<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.adjust.com\/w4u7jx3\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rebels in Indonesia\u2019s West Papua region have released a video of New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, in which he tells his family he loves them and is being treated well by his captors.<\/p>\n<p>Mehrtens, a former Jetstar pilot, was taken hostage by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/west-papua\">West Papua<\/a> National Liberation Army a year ago as a bargaining chip for its push for independence from Indonesia. The video was filmed on 22 December \u2013 prior to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/feb\/07\/kidnapped-nz-pilot-phillip-mehrtens-release-west-papua\">army announcing last week<\/a> Mehrtens would soon be freed, but not confirming when.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=copyembed\">Sign up for Guardian Australia\u2019s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/feb\/14\/kidnapped-new-zealand-pilot-phillip-mehrtens-release-west-papua-rebels\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phillip Mehrtens requests ebook reader with \u2018as many English books as possible\u2019 as well as saying he is being treated wellFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastReb&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,156,56,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-indonesia","category-new-zealand","category-west-papua"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61906,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61905\/revisions\/61906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}