Thomas Sutherland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also Thomas Sutherland (banker).

Thomas Sutherland, former Dean of Agriculture at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad members near his Beirut home on June 9, 1985.

Sutherland taught animal science at Colorado State University for 26 years and moved to Beirut for a three year term as dean of the faculty of agriculture and food science. Despite the assassination of University President Malcolm Kerr and the kidnapping of Professor Frank Reiger in 1984, Sutherland remained at the University. Two weeks after David P. Jacobsen was abducted, Sutherland was also kidnapped while using the limousine of University President Calvin Plimpton. Sutherland believes Plimpton was the true target.

He was the second-longest held captive after Terry Anderson. By the time of his release on November 18, 1991 at the same time as Terry Waite, he had been held hostage for 2354 days. His memories of the experience have been published through his book entitled At Your Own Risk which was co-authored by his wife Jean. He claims to have attempted suicide a number of times and to have spent a substantial amount of time in solitary confinement.

In June 2001, the Sutherland family won a $353 million verdict in a lawsuit against the government of Iran.