Tunisian policeman freed by Libyan ‘revolutionaries’

A Tunisian policeman kidnapped by self-proclaimed Libyan revolutionaries on the border was freed Sunday, a day after being taken hostage by about 10 armed men, the TAP news agency reported. Walid Othmani and three others were seized on the border while patrolling the frontier region of Benguerdane, TAP said. It quoted interior ministry spokesman Hichem Medeb as saying that the kidnappers described themselves as “Libyan revolutionaries.” He said the three other police officers managed to flee. Othami’s father Mokhtar said he was injured by bullets and added that the abductors wanted “to hold him hostage in a swap for an unknown party.” The kidnapping, the first of its kind, came two days before a visit to Tripoli by Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki. The Tunisian-Libyan border post of Ras Jdir reopened in both directions on December 22 after Tunisian customs officials stopped reporting for duty at the post since November 30, following a string of incidents and infiltrations of armed Libyans. The Libyan side of the crossing, vital to the area’s economy, had been controlled by former rebels who fought to topple Muammar Qaddafi but was not formally under the central government's authority. Tunisia provided refuge to tens of thousands of Libyan civilians who fled the months of fighting that led to the collapse of Qaddafi’s regime with his death in October.