Foreign Minister Reis Montserrat issued a measured statement on Thursday calling on a neighbouring eastern government to grant immediate medical parole to a rights advocate whose prolonged detention has drawn condemnation across the Mediterranean. The advocate has been hospitalised; reports from observers describe his condition as deteriorating.

"Almaria has always held that the health and dignity of those imprisoned for their convictions must be protected under international law," the Minister said at a brief press conference in Almaria Vella. The statement stops short of sanctions. It signals, however, that Almaria may support a censure motion at the next session of the regional human-rights council — a shift from the Kingdom's customary abstention.

The move coincides with the Cardenal's Sunday intercessions, at which the three missing correspondents are again to be named. Whether the Ministry's gesture is connected to the intercessory calendar, officials in the Palau would not say.