[Libya Herald] The kidnappers of five Egyptian diplomatic staff who were kidnapped last night and this morning, tonight gave the Egyptian government 24 hours to release the nabbedPlease don't kill me!
head of the Libyan Revolutionaries Operation Room (LROR).
The kidnappers phoned the Arab news channel Al-Arabiya this evening and put several of the Egyptian diplomatic staff on the line. They gave their names and ages, and confirmed they had been taken from their homes in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
.
One of the kidnappers then told the presenter that their demand was the immediate release of LROR head Shaban hadia Al-Zway, who was arrested in Alexandria on Friday night. Egyptian media have said that Zway was arrested on suspicion of being affiliated with Al-Qaeda and for possession of foreign currencies, documents and CDs.
The kidnapper said that the group would give the Egyptian government twenty-four hours to release Zway, before the line went dead.
After the call, the presenter called the front man for the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdulaati, who said that Zway was being held while investigations were ongoing. "If he is found to be innocent, he will be released, otherwise he will be put on trial," Abdulaati said. "We are a country of law and we are treating him very well and with respect."
He said that the Egyptian authorities had not had any contact with the kidnappers. They were working only with the Libyan government, Abdulaati said, and had spoken to Prime Minister Ali Zeidan
... served as a diplomat for Libya during the 1970s, serving in India under Ambassador Mohammed Magariaf. Both men defected in 1980 and went on to form the National Front for the Salvation of Libya. Zeidan spent nearly three decades in exile in Geneva after the defection. During the revolution Zeidan served as the National Transitional Council's Europe envoy, and is credited as having played a key role in persuading French President Nicolas Sarkozy to support the anti-Qadaffy forces...
and the Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Abdulaziz.