By Hadi Fornaji.
Tripoli, 25 July 2014:
It has been disclosed that a Maltese oil worker was abducted last week on the outskirts . . .[restrict]of Tripoli while on his way to work at his company’s site.
The man has been named by The Times of Malta as Martin Galea, 42, a former captain in the Armed Forces of Malta. He was seized on 17 July by what the paper referred to as “western Libyan rebel militias”.
The Maltese authorities were only informed about the seizure three days later and have been trying to trace the man and his abductors, but without success so far.
“We’re working on it,” a Maltese official told the Libya Herald. The Maltese authorities are otherwise keeping tight lipped about the presumed kidnapping.
Libyan security sources said they had no information about the abduction.
Meanwhile today, a second group of 24 Maltese and Libyans with Maltese citizenship left Tripoli’s Mitiga airbase on a chartered flight to Malta. On Monday, 40 Maltese left.
The departure is voluntary. The Maltese authorities point out that they are not paying for the Medavia flights and that there is no formal evacuation.
Some 130 Maltese are now said to be left in Libya.
With acknowledgements to The Times of Malta [/restrict]
