Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, the correspondent of 'The Guardian' sent to Libya, has spent two weeks in detention. In an article published by the newspaper for which he works, describes the "brutal" regime's prison system. journalist correspondent traveling with the Brazilian newspaper "Estado de Sao Paulo ', Andrei Netto, 34, and some rebels when he was captured.
His idea was to go to Zawiya, but changed their plans because soldiers blocked the road Gaddafi principal and enter the desert after they went towards Sabratha. There, according to his account, it was noted that they had been supporters of Gaddafi: the buildings of the police and intelligence services were charred, but did not have green flags of the new regime. The two journalists were separated from their companions rebels took refuge in an empty house half-built, far from the militants. That night, four men approached the scene, dressed in dark sports and clubs, except one, who had a gun.
"When surrounded the house there was no way to escape," he says. Tells how shoved them and forced them to bow their heads while they railed against "Sons of bitches!, Jews and Zionists!" Arab traitors! "You want to overthrow Gaddafi?" We are going to rape your mothers! Gaddafi will teach !. "
Interrogation
took him to a van and beat his teammate in the head with a metal pipe. During the trip, one of the men were beaten with a stick. Their destination was a prison, "we now know is in Tripoli." There, two journalists were separated.
After questioning for four hours even blindfolded him "pushed" to the cell, the number 11: No windows, 2.5 meters by 1.5 meters, painted in dark gray, illuminated by a weak bulb. Inside was a dirty mattress, a blanket and a pillow stained. A low wall separating the toilet seat, broken and covered with a thick brown crust. There was a strong smell of sewage, says Abdul-Ahad. "It was on Wednesday two of the deck. The prison would be my home for a fortnight."
He witnessed the guards, with combat trousers, they spent day and night pushing prisoners chained inside and outside cells. One of them, a little more talkative, told him that "all people who are captured are infiltrated by Al Qaeda. " The same man, another day, throwing compliments to Colonel Gaddafi." We love [...] Together we have survived many things ... [...] It is not only our leader, is a philosopher and thinker. It's everything. "
However, according to his testimony, worse than the guards, fear and the smell were the ravings of a prisoner of the same passage, which would not stop screaming and mourn." Days later I discovered that he , like many others, was being interrogated and beaten regularly, "he says.
Hope frustrated
Account in the early hours of Sunday 06 March, began a shooting outside the prison. It started with a few bursts of small arms fire, but after anti-aircraft guns were heard. "At one point, the weapons were being fired from somewhere just off the cells." Inmates were excited thinking that perhaps they were the rebels who were to storm the prison and had come to Tripoli. But everything remained the same. An officer pushed the breakfast in the hatch door and said "Dirty Europeans ... we will crush you with the tips of our shoes. If the dogs to attack rebels come here we will die together."
says Abdul-Ahad ago after the battle began to fill the cells, some with up to three inmates. "There was a man of Zwara, another Zawiya, and a plump, gray-haired man named Richard who speaks English with an American accent," he explains.
it has moved to a larger cell in an upper floor was next to two interview rooms was always running. "Each interview began and ended with the tinkling sound of a man walking in shackles. The fool was taken for questioning at least twice," he adds.
The history of Bangladeshi
On Thursday March 10 that took him out of large cell and led him to the cell number 18 in the downstairs hall. It was also dark, small and dirty, but this time was to share with another prisoner.
"I was sitting on a torn mattress, his back against the wall and legs covered with a dirty blanket, yellow and red. His hair was slicked back and a white beard a few days." Bangladesh, "he said pointing himself. I was shaking in a thin shirt. "
He told his story in broken sentences: he tried to travel from your country to Saudi Arabia for work, but in the end only got a visa for Libya. They arrived in Libya on a visa tourist who suddenly expired and the work permit and employment that had been promised never came, but it worked anyway in Benghazi and Tripoli. When the fighting and demonstrations began and foreigners began to flee the country, asked the Libyan leader to pay him the money he had to get out. But the boss just told him to wait. While all his friends went to Tunisia, he was to expect her 800 dinars. "A soldier stopped me and asked me where my visa. They beat me and brought me here ... Everywhere there are workers in Bangladesh, only here in Libya lock you up in a locked room, explained his cellmate.
release
The next day, the journalist was taken alone again. "Towards the end of the second week I noticed small differences in the way I was treated. The day 12, a guard brought a toothbrush. On June 13, a bar of soap and shampoo. On day 14 I brought a cup of coffee and even offered a cigarette, "he says. Ensures gave no information about what was happening outside, or why he was detained. After several feints to free him, in which blindfolded him and rode him in a van to transfer him back to his cell later, on Wednesday March 16 gave their notebooks and camera and blindfolded again climbed into the van. The truck stopped, a guard took off the blindfold and saw that they were facing a large building. A second man approached him and took him to a marble staircase. "At the top I met with three colleagues in the 'Guardian' waiting to meet me and get me out of Libya. Netto Brazilian journalist Andrei, I was told, had been released six days before."
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/03/26/internacional/1301118506.html
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