Kidnapped Tunisian dilpomats freed in Libya ‘were not traded for militia leader’

TEN Tunisian diplomats seized by Libyan gunmen have been released and are flying home, Tunisia’s foreign minister said, while denying that they had been traded for a Libyan militia leader.

Libyan militia leader Walid Klib, who was detained in Tunisia last month on terrorism charges, was extradited to Libya in the early hours of the morning, according to his lawyer, Wissem Saidi. The two incidents have been linked by the Libyans, who said the freeing of the diplomats was conditional on Klib’s release.

“The page of the Tunisian consulate will be turned and they will return to their families when God willing the revolutionary hero Walid Klib returns to his family,” Jamal Zubia, spokesman for Libya’s Tripolibased government, said on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

Libya has been divided between rival governments and hundreds of militias in the aftermath of its 2011 civil war that ousted dictator Moammar algadhafi.

An Islamist-led government backed by militias seized Tripoli last August, and Libya’s internationally recognized parliament – which was forced out – now convenes in the eastern city of Tobruk.

The Libyan Dawn militia in May detained 172 Tunisians working in Libya to push for Klib’s release. When that didn’t work, they stormed the Tunisian consulate on 12 June.