Muhammad Munaf is a businessman who holds triple Iraqi, Romanian and U.S. citizenships. He arrived in Romania more than 25 years ago as a student. Mr. Munaf is described as having financed a trip to Iraq for four Romanian journalists, and acted as their guide and interpreter. He was seized along with Marie-Jeanne Ion, Sorin Miscoci and Eduard Ohanesian shortly after an interview with the interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. The kidnapping is believed to have taken place near the journalists' hotel in the upscale Jadriya district.

On March 30, a video showing the four hostages, flanked by gunmen, was released. No demands were stated.

According to reports, the group decided to release the hostages in response to calls by influential Saudi preacher Salman al-Odeh and Muslims in Romania. It is not known whether any ransom was paid for their release.

On May 27th, the Romanian government announced that it was charging Mr. Munaf along with his business partner for orchestrating the kidnapping.

After the release of Florence Aubenas and Hussein Al-Saadi, the Romanians diclosed that they had all been held together between April 1 up until the time of the Romanians' release.