Marie Jeanne Ion, Sorin Miscoci and Ovidiu Ohanesian, three Romanian journalists taken as hostages on May 22, 2005 were not kidnapped by the resistance but by a businessman with a Syrian and Rumanian nationality: Omar Hayssam, who organized the kidnapping with the assistance of Mohammed Munaf, the Iraqi-American "guide" for the journalists in Iraq to later become the liberator and thus escape from judicial charges on organized crime and financial crime in Romania, said Romanian President Traian Basescu. He added that Hayssam’s plan had failed for, at the end, the hostages were in the hands of a more dangerous group and were rescued by the Romanian services. Finally, President Basescu urged his countrymen not to travel to Iraq without a good reason.