ROME • A French former Scientologist who was rescued in January after several weeks of captivity in Sardinia will return home next week, a police spokesman said yesterday.

Martine Boublil, who was found half naked on a mattress infested with insects and worms in a room full of rubbish on January 21, is still recovering in hospital from the ordeal but will return to France "sometime next week," the spokesman said from the northern Sardinian town of Nuoro. A French diplomat in Rome confirmed that the 48-year-old, whose brother Claude Boublil is a leading Scientologist in France, would go home "soon."

"The French consulate has followed this matter closely since the beginning in close collaboration with the Italian authorities, and Martine Boublil will soon be repatriated to France," the diplomat said.

Nuoro police were alerted to the kidnapping by a caller.