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ADELAIDE - A South Australian farmer was lured to Africa with promises of marriage and gold then held hostage for 12 days.
Des Gregor, 56, from Hoyleton about 120km north of Adelaide, arrived in Mali on July 27 after corresponding with his supposed bride-to-be "Natacha" on the internet.
Soon after arriving in the west African country, he was assaulted, stripped of his credit cards and cash, and taken to an apartment in the capital Bamako where he was held hostage.
An organised gang demanded thousands of dollars, which they tried to secure through Mr Gregor's family back in Hoyleton.
But his family contacted Australian Federal Police who eventually secured the farmer's release.
Mr Gregor's brother Phil, 46, from Halbury also north of Adelaide, said he would be at the airport to meet his brother.
He said he had spoken to Des soon after he was safe at the Canadian embassy in Bamako.
"Des, in his usual manner, is a very caring person and he was more concerned with the ordeal we'd been through than the ordeal he'd been through, that we were all okay," Phil Gregor said.
He said he did not know what he would say to his brother.
"We really do have a lot to talk about but we're basically glad that he's home," he said.
"You see this in a movie, you read about it in a book, it happens to someone else not you. But it does - I found that out."
- AAP
