The Libyan militia that captured a Maltese man, Captain Martin Galea, has not demanded ransom from the Maltese government, a government spokesman has confirmed to The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Reliable sources also told this newsroom that no Maltese embassy top officials were present at the Tripoli embassy when Galea was captured by a Libyan rebel militia, which is a “new unknown” militia.

“Officials had been flown out of Libya at the time Captain Galea was first detained,” sources told this newspaper.

Captain Galea was abducted by western Libyan rebel militias on 17 July on his way to work at a site managed by his employer, Arab Geophysical Exploration Services Company, on the outskirts of Tripoli.

This comes after a Maltese official told The Libya Herald that the Maltese authorities were only informed about the seizure of Captain Galea three days after his apparent abduction and have been trying to trace the Maltese oil industry employee and his abductors, but with little success so far.

 

Rescue efforts underway

Reliable sources have also told this newsroom that efforts by a network of former Armed Forces of Malta colleagues of Captain Galea are underway through Libyan emigrants in Malta and in Libya. They are said to be “aiding” an Italian-Maltese private military contractor firm who is attempting to establish contact with Libyan militias to secure the release and safe return home of the Maltese national, this newspaper is reliably informed.

Meanwhile, sources close to the family of Captain Galea told this newspaper that his family has been instructed by Maltese authorities not to speak to anyone, including the media.

They have also been told not to take matters in their own hands and to let the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s crisis centre and diplomats deployed in the field to do what they do best.

This newsroom attempted to speak to a family member twice, on Friday and yesterday, but was met with the same reply: “We have no information, thanks for your call”.

This newsroom is informed that on Friday, a family member was planning to meet representatives of the foreign ministry, including Minister George Vella.

When this newsroom called yesterday to ask whether the outcome of the meeting was positive, it was met with a wall of silence.

 

How the family realised something was terribly wrong

When asked how family members realised that Captain Galea was in fact missing, sources told this newsroom that Captain Galea had an agreement with his wife to send her an SMS on a daily basis which would follow with a chat on Skype. But that message never came on 17 July. Captain Galea was at base camp in the Libyan desert waiting for his driver to pick him up but this never happened it seems. The firm he works for said it had no news of his whereabouts when contacted by his family.

 

Maltese government says Captain Galea is alive

The Maltese government issued a statement yesterday afternoon stating that from new information it has received from Libyan contacts, information of which could not be verified independently, Captain Galea is alive.

The government said that it has continued to intensify its efforts in this regard.

 

Three Maltese nationals expected to arrive in Malta by Air Libya this weekend

Three Maltese nationals, a mother and her two children, were expected to arrive in Malta last night. After an exhausting journey from Zintan to Tripoli, the family was expected to catch an Air Libya flight to Malta, a family member told this newspaper.

The family member said that hopefully no unexpected turns would take place.