Libya on Wednesday freed four arrested journalists — two Americans, a Briton and a Spaniard — an AFP journalist witnessed as they arrived at the capital’s Rixos Hotel.
James Foley of GlobalPost, a US online news agency, and freelance writer Clare Morgana Gillis, as well as Spanish photographer Manu Brabo disappeared on April 4 while covering the conflict in Libya.
They were released along with Briton Nigel Chandler, who has previously worked as a freelance journalist for the BBC.
The four looked tired, but appeared to be in good health.
The freed journalists were taken directly to a room near the reception, but colleagues were prevented from meeting them.
“They told me they do not want to talk to the press. They are nervous and need rest,” government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry said in a statement it “welcomes” the release of Brabo. It said he is in “good health” and was to be driven to the border with Tunisia yesterday from where he would return to Spain.
The British Foreign Office confirmed Chandler’s release and said it was providing consular support.
On Tuesday, Ibrahim said the two Americans, a Spaniard and a South African, Anton Hammerl, were to be released imminently.
However, there was no immediate information on the fate of Hammerl, who was also detained on April 4, even though the South African ambassador was at the hotel waiting for him.
Mussa on Wednesday referred to “confusion” about the journalists and said Hammerl’s whereabouts were unknown.
The previous day, he said that “four journalists were tried by an administrative tribunal and were given one-year suspended prison sentences and a fine of 200 dinars [US$154] each for illegal entry into the country.”
“There are some administrative procedures to complete. They will be freed very soon,” said Ibrahim, who appeared at the time to be referring to Hammerl as part of the group.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS