Three BBC journalists have been kidnapped and interrogated for five days in a Libyan torture prison.
The journalists were part of a film crew making a documentary about Lebanese imam Musa al-Sadr, who was invited to the country in 1978 and disappeared.
The three, whose names have not been released, were abducted shortly after arriving in Tripoli in March.
The crew was only released after diplomatic pressure from the British Foreign Office, the Swedish government and the BBC.
The BBC journalists were traveling with reporter Kassem Hamadé, who has wrote an account of his imprisonment for the Swedish newspaper Expressen.
Kassem Hamadé was kidnapped in Libya while working with three BBC journalists
Hamadé wrote: ‘It is Sunday afternoon when I and the film crew I are working with land at the airport of Tripoli, the capital of Libya.
“We’re here to make a documentary for the BBC… I still don’t know why I was kidnapped, but the closest I can get to an explanation is that the documentary I traveled to Libya to completing has scared people in the intelligence community. community, men of great power who were formerly loyal to the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.’
In the article, Hamadé explained the horror of being captured and thrown into a cell ten feet long and two feet wide.
He said, “The guard’s voice is in my ear. “You’re going to die. We’ll chop you up and bury you here. No one knows you’re here, it’s going blank.”‘
He continued, “The last word – blank – I know all too well what it means.
‘I have met people who were tortured ‘in blank’. They are suspended by a winch from their wrists until only the tips of their toes touch the ground.
In that position they have been subjected to senseless violence ever since. Those I met were lucky enough to get out alive. Many don’t. How will we fare?’
Hamadé writes that the crew had arrived at Tripoli airport three days earlier – but there were suspicions even then.
“We are being monitored,” he wrote. ‘The security people look at us with great suspicion and even though all passengers have already left the arrivals hall, we stay for another three hours before our passports are stamped and we are allowed to enter the country.
Three BBC journalists have been kidnapped while filming a documentary in Tripoli
‘We are two journalists, a cameraman and a producer from three different countries. We are about to finish a documentary about the Lebanese imam Musa al-Sadr who was invited to Libya in August 1978 and disappeared.
“Two local drivers and a bodyguard are waiting for us at the airport parking lot. They have ear plugs in and are on alert all the time, just like we are in a war zone. It bothers me.’
Hamadé said they were booked into a hotel prior to their arrival, but once in town, Libyan officials rebooked the film crew to the Radisson in Tripoli, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
The area is near where Gaddafi had a guest house for foreign visitors.
The next morning, while awaiting further accreditation at the State Department headquarters near the hotel, several officials showed up and bundled the crew into a waiting car.
He wrote: ‘Me, the driver and the cameraman are forced into the backseat and I end up in the middle. I look down and am in a state of controlled shock. I whisper to my comrades without looking at them: ‘We have been kidnapped’.
“The journey is moving east along the Libyan coast at very high speed. My hearing is expanding. All sounds are amplified. Every movement rushes through my head.
‘Do you know who we are? No, you will soon find out,” says the man who is now in charge of the group.
“I hope it’s not ISIS or al-Qaeda,” I whisper in the backseat.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘A small team working for the BBC entered Libya in March this year with full permission to collect material for a story.
They were then detained for several days and interrogated by Libyan intelligence services.
“The interrogation took place despite our authorized entry into the country and without apparent motive.
“We stand with our journalists and are deeply concerned about the treatment of this team.
“The safety of those who work for the BBC is our number one priority and we will continue to support this team.”
A BBC insider said the broadcaster would not comment on detailed security issues and continues to support the victims of the interrogation, who had official papers to enter the country.
An FCDO spokesperson said: ‘We have supported four British men who have been released from detention in Libya. We have taken their cases directly to the Libyan authorities.’