By Houda Mzioudet.
Tunis, 26 August 2015:
Tunisia remains quietly hopeful about the possible return of missing journalists Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Gtari who were . . .[restrict]abducted in Libya last September.
They had been reported to have been killed by Islamic State forces, and Tunisia has launched formal murder changes against two Egyptians being held in Beida, allegedly involved in their deaths.
However, Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche is now being quoted in the Tunisian media as saying that his ministry has had news that the journalists are in good health and that it is in now contact with a number of intermediaries in Libya to secure their release.
Contacted by the Libya Herald, the ministry would not comment, saying only that it could “neither confirm nor deny such statements” but that it would will issue a statement if there was any further developments.
Earlier this month, Baccouche told a local Tunisian radio station that the ministry had new information indicating that Chourabi and Gtari were still alive.
On 6 August, the father of Gtari also announced that that the two families have been given information on the whereabouts of the two journalists, that they were being held by an unknown group in the east of Libyan along with a number of other foreigners. He did not give any further details other than that negotiations were ongoing to secure their release. [/restrict]
