Tag Archives: Freed

Freed Australian denies North Korean spy charges, says no plans to return

An Australian student Alek Sigley, 29, who was detained in North Korea, departs from Beijing to Japan, at the Beijing international airport, China, July 4, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) – The Australian student released last week after being detained in North Korea said on Tuesday Pyongyang’s accusation that he was a spy was “pretty obviously” false, but that his work in the country was probably over.

Alek Sigley, 29, who was studying in the North Korean capital, had been missing since June 25 before he was abruptly expelled from the country on July 4 after Swedish officials helped broker his release.

North Korean state media later issued a statement saying Sigley had admitted to committing “spying acts” by working with foreign media, including NK News, a website that specializes in North Korea.

“The allegation that I am a spy is (pretty obviously) false. The only material I gave to NK News was what was published publicly on the blog, and the same goes for other media outlets,” Sigley said in a Tweet on Tuesday.

Sigley went on to say “the whole situation makes me very sad”, since he would be unable to complete the master’s degree he had been pursuing at Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung University.

“I am still very interested in North Korea and want to continue academic research and other work related to the country,” he said in another tweet. “But I currently have no plans to visit the country again, at least in the short term.”

His company, Tongil Tours, would be canceling all tours to North Korea until further notice, Sigley added.

“I may never again walk the streets of Pyongyang, a city that holds a very special place in my heart,” he wrote. “I may never again see my teachers and my partners in the travel industry, whom I’ve come to consider close friends. But that’s life.”

(Reporting by Josh Smith; editing by Nick Macfiem, Larry King)

Dozens of Eritrean and Nigerian former Islamic State captives freed in Libya

FILE PHOTO: An Eritrean migrant touches a ring on her hand at a military building in Misrata, Libya, November 6, 2016. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan authorities released on Wednesday 28 Eritreans and seven Nigerians who were captured and enslaved by Islamic State in Sirte and had been held in detention since the jihadist group lost the city in December.

The group, all but two of whom are women and children, escaped from Sirte, a former Islamic State stronghold in central Libya, while forces from the nearby city of Misrata battled to oust the militants late last year.

Some of the women were on their way to Europe when Islamic State fighters kidnapped and held them as sex slaves.

After they escaped from Sirte, they were investigated for possible ties to the group and held for several months in a Misrata prison.

Reuters has documented how Islamic State used enslaved refugee women to reward its fighters in Libya. In stories published last year, the women recounted how the group forced them to convert to Islam and sold them as sex slaves.

In November, a Reuters reporter visited some of the captives at a military post in Misrata. Their new captors, the women said then, starved and humiliated them. At least one woman, a 16-year-old, was pregnant and in need of urgent care.

The Libyan attorney-general’s office announced that it had cleared the women of any wrongdoing in mid-February, but their release was delayed for several more weeks, with no explanation.

On Wednesday, they were received by staff from the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Libyan Red Crescent, before being taken to a shelter for medical checks.

“I’m very happy, I can’t describe how I feel, but I am very happy, I can start a new life and see my family again,” one 14-year-old Eritrean girl told Reuters before leaving the prison with the rest of the group on a Red Crescent bus.

A UNHCR official said the entire group had scabies, but otherwise appeared to be in reasonable physical condition.

The agency expects to resettle the Eritreans as refugees.

“We will send them to a safe house where they can be treated if they need medical treatment, and receive assistance from us, and be protected,” said Samer Haddadin, head of the UNHCR’s Libya mission.

“At the same time we will be processing them for refugee status determination … and we are doing this to make sure we can find a resettlement country for those who meet the resettlement criteria.”

The Nigerians, five women and two children, will be able to apply for asylum or be offered repatriation.

Dozens of women and children who escaped from Sirte or were picked up there by Libyan forces are still being held in Misrata. They include Libyans, Tunisians, and nationals from several sub-Saharan African countries. A group of Filipino nurses were freed in February.

Islamic State took control of Sirte in early 2015, turning the coastal city into its most important base outside Syria and Iraq and stationing hundreds of foreign fighters there. It took Misrata-led forces almost seven months to recapture the city.

(Reporting by Ayman al-Sahli in Misrata and Aidan Lewis in Tunis; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Louise Ireland)