Marcel Fontaine; French Diplomat Was a Hostage

PARIS — Marcel Fontaine, a French diplomat who was kidnapped in Lebanon and held for more than three years, has died. He was 54.

Fontaine died Monday at Val de Grace Hospital after a long illness, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jacques Rummelhardt. Fontaine reportedly was suffering from cancer.

An embassy protocol officer, Fontaine was among the first French nationals kidnapped during the Lebanese civil war when he was abducted March 22, 1985. Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group, claimed responsibility.

Fontaine was among the last French hostages released in May 1988, along with fellow diplomat Marcel Carton and journalist Jean-Paul Kauffmann.

French authorities denied reports that France made a deal with the Iranian government to bring about the release of 10 French captives held in Lebanon over a two-year period.

Two weeks after Fontaine and his colleagues were released, France announced it would renew diplomatic relations with Iran.

While in captivity, Fontaine shared a cell with Terry A. Anderson, then the chief Middle East correspondent for Associated Press. Anderson, who was freed in 1991, was held for 6 1/2 years--the longest of any of the Western hostages in Lebanon.

“When I was a little sick and dispirited,” Fontaine recalled after his release, “I said to Terry that I’m not afraid to die, but I don’t want to die here and have them throw my body into the sea.”