Contrary to what she first alleged, Talitha van Zon was not attacked by Libyan rebels. The former Playboy model had to flee for her life because African mercenaries of Muammar Gaddafi’s son wanted to rape and murder her.

Dutch paper De Telegraaf wrote yesterday that this conclusion is based on discussions between the British secret service MI6 and US advisers of Hillary Clinton in Libya.

The model was among 46 evacuees who arrived in Malta on Monday on the Triva 1, a ship chartered by the Maltese government to evacuate people stranded in Tripoli.

In her interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the model said that she feared she would be put on fire by rebels and therefore jumped out of her hotel balcony in Tripoli.

But according to British intelligence this is a lie. “Two jet-black soldiers, from Gaddafi’s private army, wanted to rape her in turn. Then she jumped in blind panic from her balcony at the Corinthia Hotel, nearly 13 metres down,” said one of the agents.

She was said to have survived because her fall was broken by the window of a parked car. An alternative story in other media said her fall was broken by an awning.

The Dutch glamour model who had a relationship with one of the sons of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, escaped from Libya by posing as a journalist, De Pers reported yesterday.

Talitha van Zon was helped to get out of the country by war reporter Arnold Kaskens, who gave her a visiting card naming his employer, free newspaper De Pers, Kaskens said on the paper’s weblog.

Together with a friendly rebel, Kaskens managed to get Van Zon past immigration officials and on to a Maltese freighter, he said. The boat arrived in Malta on Monday afternoon.

The Telegraaf says it is not clear when van Zon will return to the Netherlands. Here she may face people smuggling charges after a former friend claims the model, who once posed for Playboy, was paid to get her to visit Libya where she was sexually abused, the paper said.