Freed photographer admits Somalia trip was risky

The Australian photojournalist recently released after being held hostage for 15 months in Somalia says he was trying to highlight the plight of the people living in the country, but "it was maybe a risk I shouldn't have taken."

Nigel Brennan and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were kidnapped by gunmen on Aug. 23, 2008, while making their way to a refugee camp near the Somalian capital, Mogadishu. They were released during a nighttime exchange on a road south of Mogadishu on Nov. 25 after paying a reported $700,000 in ransom.

Brennan, who returned to Australia on Sunday, told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday he had doubts during his captivity whether he would make it back to Australia.

Asked to explain why he was in the volatile country, he said it was "to highlight the plight of others not so fortunate.

"In hindsight, it was maybe a risk I shouldn't have taken, and I'm personally distressed at the grief and heartache I have caused, but my motives were honourable," he said.

Brennan said the two journalists were kept apart from each other, beaten and tortured during their captivity. But he said he wouldn't have been able to survive without Lindhout.

"Even though for the most part we were completely isolated from each other, just knowing you were through the wall or down the corridor was an unbelievable comfort," he said.

A spokesman for Lindhout's parents, who live in Sylvan Lake, Alta., confirmed last week that she had been released from a hospital in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Lindhout is expected back in Canada this week.