You may never have heard of such a profession. Only a handful of people in the world do this job, and an opening at one of the London-based firms appears only once every few years. Adam Dolník belongs to this elite group. An international kidnapping negotiator who has helped secure the release of numerous innocent people around the world, he is now speaking publicly about his largely hidden profession in a new book.
Do you sleep well? Aren’t you afraid?
No, I’m not. I’m perfectly calm. I don’t feel any fear; if I did, I wouldn’t be publishing a book, and we certainly wouldn’t be having this conversation. Besides, I’m not easy to find at any particular address, and I don’t think anyone would go to the trouble of looking for me.
Not even members of terrorist groups you have encountered and later spoken about publicly in lectures around the world? Wouldn’t they consider you worth the effort?
I understand the capabilities of these people, so I’m not concerned about anything like that. If anything, I would be more worried about certain foreign state actors than terrorist groups.
Photo: Jan Zátorský, MAFRA