By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 13 May 2014:
Jordan’s ambassador to Libya has denied that he was tortured during his four-week kidnapping. Looking . . .[restrict]tired and drawn when he arrived today in at a military airport, Fawwaz Al-Eitan told reporters that his abductors had treated him in a “civilised and humane manner”.
Eitan was handed over to Jordanian officials at three this morning and taken straight to a waiting airplane. After he was thronged by reporters at the King Abdullah airbase at Marka near Amman, Jordanian foreign ministry officials hurried the envoy away.
The Jordanian government has denied that Eitan’s release was the result of any deal to swap him for a Libyan prisoner. Nevertheless the country’s foreign minister, Nasser Judeh said that the ambassador’s kidnappers were linked to Mohamed Dressi, who was released from a life sentence and flown to Libya yesterday. Dressi was convicted in 2007 of planning a bomb attack on Amman’s Queen Alia airport. It was reported that his release was the key demand of the kidnappers.
Eitan was seized on 15 April when his BMW was forced to a halt as he was travelling from his home to the embassy in Tripoli. His driver was shot and seriously wounded before the ambassador was dragged from the limousine and bundled into one of the kidnappers’ vehicles. Last month the Libyan government was obliged within a space of 48 hours to deny two widely-spread media reports that Eitan had been released. [/restrict]