By Houda Mzioudet.
Tunis, 13 October 2015:
Over a hundred Tunisians have been seized at random by an armed group in the town of . . .[restrict]Sabratha, according to Tunisia’s Radio Tataouine. They were arrested yesterday near Sabratha while coming from Tunisia.
The seizures appear to be in response to the arrest Saturday of the town’s acting mayor, Hussein Dawadi, along with a companion, when they arrived at Carthage Airport, Tunis.
It is still unclear why Tunisian security men would have wished to detain the Sabrathan politician. Sources in the town said that he was on his way to attend a UN workshop in the Tunisian capital. However an UNSMIL source told the Libya Herald that he was unable to confirm this.
There have been suggestions that as many as 300 Tunisians were picked by militiamen. It is understood that 57 people coming from the border to Tripoli were held at a checkpoint between Sabratha and Zuwara. They were however released this morning. Some chose to carry on to their jobs in the capital while others decided to go back to Tunisia.
The Tunisian website Webdo quoted a mobile phone interview with one of the hostages. “They have told us that their mayor has been arrested in Tunisia, “ said Sadok Bennani, ” and we won’t be freed until he is freed. If he is detained for a year, we will be held for a year. If it is just one more day for him, then it will be one more day for us”.
Bennani added that all the Tunisians on the bus on which he was travelling when it came to the militia roadblock, were told to get off , but Libyans who stayed aboard seemed unconcerned about the fate of their fellow passengers. [/restrict]
