Four Colombian former lawmakers held hostages by the FARC rebels for more than six years were released Wednesday by the captors who escorted them to the meeting point before turning them over to the representatives of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The four ex-legislators Gloria Polanco, Orlando Beltran, Luis Eladio Perez and Jorge Eduardo Gechem appeared to be healthy when arriving in the state of Guaviare, the release location. On January 10, the FARC freed two other female hostages, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzales, in the same location.

Besides the four former hostages, the FARC are believed to be holding 40 political prisoners, for the purpose of exchanging them for their comrades in the jails.

Among the hostages held by the rebels there are three U.S. defense contractor employees, Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes. They were abducted in February 2003, when their aircraft was shot down in Caqueta, Colombia.

Another high-profile hostage is Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate. Her health condition is said to be very poor. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the release of Betancourt, who holds both Colombian and French citizenship, is at the top of his list of priorities. He said that he is ready to personally collect Betancourt if the rebels agree to free her.

“I appeal to FARC to release her immediately. It's a matter of life and death, a matter of a humanitarian emergency,” he told a news conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Reuters reports.

One of the recently released hostages, Luis Eladio Perez told reporters that Betancourt “is exhausted physically and in her morale. Ingrid is mistreated very badly, they have vented their anger on her, they have her chained up in inhumane conditions.”

The FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are also holding 700 people for extortion. According to Colombian and U.S. officials the FARC are known to be involved in drug trafficking and kidnapping.