On November 30, 2004, OPU released the following statement:
Miriam Jevikova, an employee of the Organization for Aid to Refugees (OPU), was released after almost six months captivity in Chechnya and came back to Slovakia last week. According to an agreement between Czech, Slovak and Russian state authorities, details regarding circumstances of her kidnapping, the identity of kidnappers and place of her detention have not been published. Miriam was found by Russian security forces in an empty house in Grozny after difficult diplomatic negotiations between the Foreign Affairs Ministries of the Russian Federation, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. No ransom has been paid.

Organization for Aid to Refugees would like to sincerely thank to the Czech Police, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, senator Jaromir Stetina and members of his coordination group on liberation of Miriam Jevikova, priest Tomas Halik, thousands of persons in the Czech Republic, who helped by adding their signatures under the petition to reinforce the efforts to help Miriam, as well as to thank to a number of colleagues from non-governmental organizations in the European Union and Russia. Solidarity and effort of all of them was very helpful and contributed in a great way to save the life of Miriam Jevikova.

Update:
Kidnappers Demand $1M for Aid Worker (Moscow Times)
Kidnappers want $1 mln ransom for Slovak aid worker (Reuters AlertNet)
Miriam Jevikova, a 28 year-old Slovakian working for the Prague-based Organization for Aid for Refugees (OPU), was apparently abducted on or after June 1, 2004, while traveling through Ingushetia, the increasingly troubled republic neighboring Chechnya. She and her colleagues had been on an assessment mission documenting the situation of internally displaced Chechens. Miriam stayed in Pyatigorsk in southern Russia after her colleagues went back home, because she had arranged to meet with friends near the border between Ingushetia and North Ossetia. She contacted her employer for the last time on June 1 from Pyatigorsk. When she failed to meet with her friends at the arranged time, they contacted the local office of a human rights organization. Miriam had managed to send a text message by cell phone to her friend, which said " I have been dragged across the fields for two hours".

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