SIC reporter who was kidnapped in Iran died

Mreporter Jorge Duarte was born at 66. He served at SIC and was one of three Portuguese who were kidnapped in Iran by drug traffickers in 1999 during the Lisbon-Macau expedition. At the time, I was 39.

According to SIC Notícias, Jorge Duarte faced several fights and many of them related to health problems. He suffered a heart attack, stroke, melanoma and lung cancer. 

In 2023, when he was talking to Júlia Pinheiro, Jorge Duarte recalled his entire career, who initially thought he would be able to build a career in football, but that dream was destroyed after falling from a four-story height. It ended after the TV came. 

“First it was camera in the studio. Then a lot of people were needed and there were no trained technicians. We made good money”, he recalled when talking to the host. Meanwhile, he began to make exteriors. In his personal life he married and had two children, Rita and Peter, but this union “did not last long, because life became complicated”. 

“To earn so well... I wasn't prepared to meet so many people, so much artist. [And I was not prepared] for what was around. And there we are talking about drugs”, he confessed, having remembered the years of drug addiction.  

Jorge Duarte admitted that at the time “he was left with nothing” and even lived on the street. But in the midst of so much suffering, “he had great friends”. Until the death of his younger brother gave him the strength to quit his addiction. “My father realized that I was near [to die] and said to me: «What harm did I do for a son to die. One son is talking to me because it is still hot, and the other comes down to earth”. That hit me so hard, I went with him straight north. And it was my first detox.” Look here.

Jorge Duarte also mentioned when he was kidnapped in Iran. He was 22 days hostage. They were kidnapped by a drug trafficking group in 1999. “The idea was to use us as hostages for exchange.”

When he remembered the moments he lived in captivity, he confessed that he smoked opium. “The present fear. But from the moment you start smoking opium, fear passes. [...] It's been tormenting me. Every once in a while, because it was 22 days of much suffering, of not knowing if he was going to return, if he was going to die there, if they were willing to free us, if they were willing to kill us.” Look here this part of Jorge Duarte's interview. 

In sharing his testimony to life, Jorge Duarte also spoke of his great love, Tatiana Simons, and the day that both were diagnosed with AIDS.

“ It was almost impossible to have lived in that place without catching anything. I thought I might have gotten hepatitis, but it wasn't just hepatitis. It was VHI”, Jorge Duarte told when he remembered his past. Tatiana got infected too. And then “they gave them 10 years to live.” Look here the testimony of both.