**The Foreign Office has defended its stance of not paying a ransom to help free a British couple taken hostage by Somali pirates three months ago.**It issued a statement after an anti-piracy maritime group insisted it should be allowed to negotiate a payment for Paul and Rachel Chandler.
The Foreign Office said concessions would only “encourage” future kidnaps.
The Chandlers, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured while sailing towards Tanzania on 23 October.
On Sunday, they told of their ordeal through a news agency which was allowed to send a photographer when they were examined by a doctor.
They said they were being badly treated and were in urgent need of help.
The pirates have threatened to kill the couple if their demands for $7m (£4.4m) are not met.
‘Green light’
Nick Davis, chairman of the Merchant Maritime Warfare Centre, said the Chandlers’ captors were running out of patience.
“The door is open for them to be released. Somebody needs to pick up the gauntlet and run with it,” he said.
"For the amounts involved, I don’t think it’s worth trying to bring anyone to justice. We just need to get Paul and Rachel home.
“We are the people who know what needs to be done, we can do it, we just need to be allowed to do it.”
Mr Davis said he could not do anything without the “green light” from the Foreign Office and the Chandlers’ family.
He said the pirates would need to feel they were talking to somebody with the authorisation and means to secure the release.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said it had “never attempted to block any activity by Mr Davis”.
“Although there is no UK law against third parties paying ransoms, we counsel against them doing so because we believe that making concessions only encourages future kidnaps,” they said.
“This is why the government does not make or facilitate substantive concessions to hostage takers.”