KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Italian aid worker held hostage for more than three weeks was released Thursday evening, healthy and ready to go home, officials said.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, had worked with widows and their families for CARE International in Kabul for almost two years. She planned to return home in June, but she was kidnapped May 16 by gunmen who dragged her from her vehicle.

On Thursday she called her mother and said she was fine. The Afghan government paid no money and did not negotiate with the kidnappers, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said. "No ransom was paid, and no other concessions were given," he said Thursday night.

The same evening, Cantoni was shown on Kabul television walking down the stairs of the Interior Ministry and wearing a blue scarf over her hair, "She's feeling well," Jalali said. "She's in good health."

The release of Cantoni capped three weeks of protests by Afghans. Widows gathered with signs and slogans almost daily. Nationally respected clerics issued a ruling against the kidnapping. When a video of Cantoni was shown on the Tolo TV station, Afghans were outraged. Behind the scenes, officials negotiated with tribal leaders, who helped talk to the kidnappers.

In Italy similar appeals were made by politicians, an Italian movie star famous in Afghanistan and Cantoni's mother. On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI asked for Cantoni's freedom. Her release was welcomed in Italy.

"She's free! She's free!" shouted family friend Marco Formigoni, who was with Cantoni's parents in Milan when they heard about the release, Sky TG 24 television network reported. "My daughter says `hello,'" Fabio Cantoni told journalists waiting outside the family apartment in Milan.

There was jubilation in Ottawa, too. Khorshied Samad, the wife of Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad, is a close friend of Ms. Cantoni. When she heard the news of Ms. Cantoni’s release from a friend in Kabul, she quickly called the woman’s family in Italy to confirm. There was shouting and laughter in the background when Mr. Cantoni picked up.

“He asked me if I’d heard the news, and I said, ‘Is it true?’ And he told me that she had been freed,” Mrs. Samad said. “We both started crying on the phone immediately. It was just an incredible feeling of relief and joy.” Mrs. Samad said “many prayers have been answered. We can finally breathe.”

But the man responsible for Cantoni's kidnapping was a criminal, not an Islamic purist, officials said. He wanted two things: money and the release of his mother from prison, according to two officials familiar with the negotiations.
Chicago Tribune with files from Jenni Lee Campbell