Michael Jurgens, 51 of Dusseldorf and recently released hostage of so called Islamic State has been talking exclusively to The Morning Gerald about his experiences.
'I struggled at first' said Jurgens. 'When I was first snatched I was bundled into the back of a car in what I can only describe as rough treatment. We arrived at the hotel which looked like a bombed out house. There was no concierge service and I was forced to carry not only my own bags but those of my captors.'
The house, somewhere in the north Syrian desert, is still to be discovered by western forces.
Jurgens continued, 'The bed did not have an orthopedic mattress. Or a mattress. It was closer to being a piss soaked floor if I'm honest. And room service was awful. I asked for a chilled glass of Chablis and got a cup of dirty water and the butt of an AK-47 in the face.'
'This pushed it down to 3 stars for me but that wasn't all. The breakfast was gruel and the masseur broke 4 of my ribs. But it was the excursion to watch women being shot for being women that really annoyed me. My seat was twelve rows back and I couldn't see the performance. Terrible. Two stars.'