The Finnish couple, Leila and Atte Kaleva, along with Austrian Dominik Neubauer, were kidnapped in Yemen in December 2012. They were freed in May 2013, after 140 days in captivity.

In an investigative report published Tuesday, the New York Times claims that Qatar and Oman paid more than 20 million dollars – that’s close to 16 million euros – in ransom to Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula to free the Kalevas, Neubauer, and a Swiss citizen taken hostage in a separate incident.

The Kaleva couple returned to Finland through Oman. Yemeni media also reported that Oman was involved in paying their ransom.

According to the Times, Al-Qaeda and its affiliates have earned at least 125 million dollars, or around 93 million euros, from kidnappings since 2008 -- mostly from European governments, who funnel the money through proxies.

The paper argues that kidnapping Europeans has become a major source for funding Al-Qaeda’s operations around the world.

Tuomioja: Finland does not pay ransoms

Finland has denied paying any ransom for the Kalevas, or asking anyone to do so on its behalf.

In response to the article, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja re-stated to Yle that Finland did not pay nor ask any other party to pay ransoms for the Kalevas' release.

“Finland has not paid a ransom. We never do that in this kind of situation,” Tuomioja commented.