Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi called on Al-Qaeda network in Islamic Maghreb on Sunday to release two Austrian hostages kidnapped in Tunisia .

"In the name of Allah, Islam and the Quran and for the Islamic Nation interest, I call for releasing both hostages", said Al Qaradawi in an interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel.
 
"These hostages are civilians whose capture aims to punish or practice pressure on others…responsibility is, according to Islam, is an individual responsibility", said Al Qaradawi.
 
Al Qaradawi called on the kidnappers to release them because " Austria has a good attitude towards Islam in Europe ."
 
Al Qaradawi is the chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.
 
The UK has denied Al Qaradawi"s a visa to be hospitalized in London last month.
 
The hostages Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51, went missing last month during a tourist visit to Tunisia . Al-Qaeda network in Maghreb said it kidnapped them on Feb, 22nd.
 
Earlier today a senior Malian military officer told Reuters that the two hostages were being held captive in northern Malian territory, in the Kidal region, more precisely in the Tegargar sector," confirming reports published on the website of the Algerian Ennahar newspaper.
 The newspaper of Ennahar said the captives were being held by a group led by Algerian militant Abdelhamid abu Zeid at an al Qaeda base about 150 km from Kidal town in Mali.