US not to prosecute families that pay ransom: Obama

Washington 

US President Barak Obama said yesterday that the government will not prosecute families looking to pay ransom to terrorist groups to release their loved ones held as hostages.

 The new policy will allow government officials and the hostages' family members to talk to terrorist groups to get their dear ones released for a ransom.

According to the presidential policy directive, the U.S. government will stick to its "no concessions" policy -- often incorrectly interpreted as "no negotiations."

"No family of an American hostage has ever been prosecuted for paying ransom for their loved one. The last thing we should ever do is to add to a family's pain with threats like that," Obama said at the White House.

"The bottom line is this: When it comes to how our government works to recover hostages, we are changing how we do business," he said.

More than 30 Americans are currently held hostage abroad, Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco, who oversaw the policy review, told reporters yesterday.

The changes to the hostage policy, which also include the creation of an interagency "fusion cell" to streamline efforts to free American hostages and improve communication between the government and families, follow a months-long review of U.S. policy that included interviews with nearly two-dozen families of current and former U.S. hostages.