The former AFM Captain, who was released on Monday after being held captive by Libyan militiamen for 10 days, gave an exclusive interview to The Malta Independent yesterday and insisted that he wanted to get the real story out.

Martin was left broken by the ordeal, and it is no wonder he reacted angrily to a media report that claimed he had not been abducted, and another that said he was held by “friendly” militiamen. Speaking from his Bidnija home, with his wife Sue sitting beside him and supporting him at all times, he said his captors broke him and he wished for a quick death. “I knew I was going to die. I had resigned myself to that fate. I just prayed that when death came it would be quick and painless, by a bullet to the back of my head, and not with a blade.”

 

Abducted in the desert

Martin’s story begins on Sunday 13 July, when a driver was supposed to pick him up from Tripoli to take him to an oil field. He was working on contract with Agesco as a Health and Safety Advisor. The trip was eventually postponed to Thursday 17.

On Thursday Mr Galea was picked up by a driver and an assistant driver and the three left the company offices on Tripoli’s Swhani Road and headed off towards Al Shwayris in the desert in a minibus. Ten minutes later they ran into trouble. “There was a road block and our van was stopped. A man came up and started asking questions and I explained that I worked for an oil company. Everything was fine at first, until the man rummaged through my suitcase and found an old set of binoculars that once belonged to my father.”

The militia member confiscated the binoculars with the excuse that they were forbidden and slung them around his neck. “We were all set to leave but the man walked up to a red pick-up truck and handed our documents to an important looking man. He waved us over and started asking questions. Then he asked us if we had mobile phones and GPS sets. My mind suddenly clicked. Something was wrong.”

 

Blindfolded and shuffled into a vehicle

Martin says the militants suddenly told them to pull their shirts over their heads and get into the pick-up truck. The trip lasted some ten minutes. No one spoke a word until they arrived at their location.

“They put me in a small room and as soon as I walked inside I was ordered to take off my shoes and socks. They had also taken my rucksack containing my laptop and work documents, my suitcase, which had a toiletry bag containing dog tags with medical instructions inside, and all I had in my pockets, including my mobile phone, wallet, cigarettes, a photo of my wife and an early unopened birthday card she gave me before I left.” 

Prison cell small and primitive

When the guards locked him inside Martin felt it was safe to pull down the shirt from over his head. “The room was small. There were two beds, a carpet on the floor, a small window and a small hole near the ceiling. There was a bottle of dirty-looking water which I drank, I needed it badly.” This would be his ‘home’ for the next ten days.

Nothing much happened in the first twenty four hours. Martin tried to make out where he was being held. “I am quite sure we were near a main road. I could hear cars and trucks speeding by and from a small hole in the wall I could see electricity poles.”

When the sun came up on the second day, Martin had been without food for almost twenty four hours. At one point during his imprisonment he went without food for four days.

 

They told me I was to be released

Later on that morning one of the guards told him that he would be released. He saw the two drivers leaving the compound but no one came to release him.

With hands shaking, Martin says he took his time to study his surroundings and his captors. “One had long hair and was called Buhalala. Another spoke perfect English. Then there was Trouri, the armourer, who liked to fire his weapons right outside my window to scare me.”  

Martin’s passion for firearms could have cost him his life. “They noticed I was looking at their weapons and started asking questions. I told them I had previously been a soldier. I had already told the man at the roadblock.”

 

Accused me of killing Libyans

As soon as they found out about his military background the captors made their intentions clear. “Buhalala looked at me and told me they would kill me. They said I was still a soldier and I had killed many Libyans.”

The former AFM Captain argued that he had left the army in 2007 and was not in Libya during the 2011 revolution, but to no avail, his captors would have none of it. “I thought to myself; this is the end.”

(Sores on Mr Galea's thigh caused by excessive sweat)

They shot at me through the door

“Some time later, I heard a voice shouting ‘ashkari,’ the word for soldier. I shouted back that I was no longer a soldier but then a shot rang out from outside. The bullet went through the cell’s wooden door and exploded in the wall behind me. It passed inches close to my head.”

That evening, Martin managed to speak to one of his captors, a short man who was called ‘il-mudhir il-qsajjar’ by his collegaues. “I asked him for cigarettes and he gave me some. I also asked him to speak up for me with Buhalala. “He said yes, O.K, but how many Libyans did you kill? I fell from the bed with shock.”

I was hit on the head

During the second night Martin could hear the attacks on the airport and some of his captors, who had an armoured vehicle, joined the fight. After a restless night, Martin was awoken by the sound of knocking on the window. “There was a guard holding a pistol. He asked me if I knew what it was. Suddenly, his friend hit me on the head with a wooden knife handle. Fortunately the blade was missing. He tried to hit me a second time but he used such force that it flew from his grasp and landed near my bed. I slammed the window shut but I started fearing some sort of punishment for having reacted.”

 

They forced me to hurt myself

Martin would find out exactly what that punishment was a day later – the fifth day of captivity. “The man who had shot at me demanded that I give him my wedding ring. I refused and told him that it was too precious for me to give up. He got a wooden stick with rusty nails in it and I covered my face, thinking that he was going to hit me, but he said no, you are going to do this yourself. I was scared. I chickened out and obeyed him.”

With tears building up, Martin showed us the marks on his hand where the nails went in. “Only when I was bleeding heavily did he say I could stop.”

By now Mr Galea was losing count of the days. Turning to his wife Sue to comfort him, Martin says it was a continuous nightmare. “They were only giving me a small cake and  two small bottles of water a day. I was constantly covered in sweat and my clothes were stuck to my skin. I also got many sweat sores all over my body. When they finally let me take a shower it was heavenly.”

On Wednesday he told one of his captors that Thursday was his birthday and asked if he could have his freedom as a gift. “He told me he would get five of his friends and they would abuse me, sexually. That would be my gift.”

 

They fired two shots close to my head

What happened on his birthday was probably the worst incident so far. “Ashur and the man who had shot at me came into the room. I moved away from the door and sat on the bed. I was scared because the day before, the man in the cell next to mine was beaten to a pulp just because he was standing up when the guards entered his room. They banged his head against the wall at least six times and they brought a medic over to treat him in the evening.” 

Martin says he immediately noticed that one of the men was holding a Sterling submachine gun. “I thought at least this will be a quick death. He pointed it at me and fired a shot, which hit the wall to my left, some inches above my head.”

Mr Galea says Trouri then took the weapon. “I sat there frozen. I prayed. I told my wife I love her. The second shot hit much closer, a couple of inches from my right arm. I do not know if he intentionally missed or not,” says an emotional Martin.

Later that evening, one of the guards gave Martin a meal of couscous, chicken, potato and cake. “I could not eat and I threw up soon after,” says Martin, almost unable to accept the situation he was in just a few short days ago. 

 

They plotted my execution

On Saturday, Martin lost all faith that he would ever see his wife again. Being a fluent Arabic speaker, Mr Galea often overheard his captors talking about him outside his cell. “One of the guards realised I had two passports and became suspicious. They had already convinced themselves I was some kind of spy and they thought the passport issue proved them right.”

The English speaking guard phoned the Maltese embassy in Tripoli and asked whether it was “normal” for Maltese persons to have two passports. The guards, however, were not satisfied with the embassy’s explanation.

On Sunday, a guard entered the cell and Martin asked for some cigarettes. The guard said he would need something in return and pointed towards Martin’s wedding ring. “He said he would cut off my finger if I did not give it to him. Then he said he would shoot me. I figured that the ring was not worth losing my life for, and besides, my wife is in here,” he says, pointing to his heart, “so I gave it to him.”

Later on during the day, Martin heard his captors discussing his fate. “I overheard them saying that they would blindfold me and put me in the back of the pick-up. They would then drive me to the main gate of the complex and shoot me in the head. The man who stole my ring would be my executioner. They would then drop my body in the middle of the desert. I cried and cried because I knew I was going to die. I prayed for forgiveness and fell asleep.”

 

I braced myself for death

The next day the guards went into Martin’s cell and told him to stand up. “I thought this is it. I tried to put on my shoes but one of the guards told me I would not be needing them. The handcuffs they used were so tight they cut into my arm. I was blindfolded with a vest and shuffled onto the back seat of a pick-up. As we drove towards the main gate I was sure these were last moments. I was going to die. I would never see my wife again. I braced myself for the shot that would end my life.”

 

Read the second part of the interview in tomorrow’s edition of The Malta Independent