‘I went through some tough times’
52-year-old Canadian kidnapped in Libya relieved to be home in Montreal
MONTREAL — When he was driven deep into the Libyan desert and told to kneel in the sand, Frank Poccia thought his seven weeks as a hostage were drawing to a tragic close.
Lying on the ground, surrounded by armed gunmen, he thought, “OK, this is where they’re going to kill us, something didn’t go right,” Poccia recalled.
Instead, the 52-year-old Canadian and two fellow Italian hostages were loaded into another vehicle and taken to the airport where they were released, 47 days after being taken captive by armed gunmen as they headed to work.
Now, a month after the Italian government announced the men’s release, Poccia said he considers himself lucky to have escaped the ordeal and is happy to be back home with his family in Montreal.
“It’s been a relief. I went through some tough times, but I think my family went through some extremely tough times, and they still are.”
Poccia, an Italian-born Canadian, had been in Libya working on a project at the Ghat airport.
On Sept 19, he was driving to work behind the Italians when both vehicles were intercepted by a group of masked, armed men.
After being bound and blindfolded, the three were driven deep into the desert, where they would spend the following weeks confined in a series of small rooms.
After the fear of death subsided, he said the hardest part of his captivity was not being able to contact his family in Canada.
Poccia said the hostages were fairly well treated by their captors, who gave them enough food and water and only blindfolded them when they left the room.
But he knew his family didn’t know that, and worried about how it must be affecting them.