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Priest offers captors forgiveness and beer Wed Nov 8, 9:44 AM ET
A Portuguese priest held hostage for 19 hours by prisoners trying to escape from a jail wants to "celebrate life" over a beer with his former captors.
Julio Lemos, who was grabbed and kept at knife-point by two prisoners at the jail where he held mass over the weekend, said he forgave the prisoners. His two captors are both serving prison sentences for manslaughter.
"It's very easy to say they are unworthy and a bunch of assassins, but it is hard to admit that they are the result of our society," Lemos told daily Diario de Noticias Wednesday.
"I have every intention of going to have that beer I promised them, so that we can celebrate life."
The hostage drama ended as police overpowered the prisoners on their way out of the jail with the priest to an escape car.
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