CAIRO: Egyptian student and paramedic Abdel Khalek El-Sayed was freed in Libya on Monday after being detained by Moammar Qaddafi’s forces in February in Ras Lanuf.
"Abdel Khalek arrived safely to the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli and will be escorted to the Tunisian border tomorrow [Tuesday] to get on the first plane back to Egypt," said Adel Abdel Ghaffar, Abdel Khalek’s friend who went with him to Libya as paramedics.
"Both of us went to Libya with aid convoys to help the people there, we both went to Benghazi and then he decided to go to Ras Lanuf, and we haven’t heard from him since," he said.
Abdel Khalek’s family was surprised to watch a video aired on Libyan state TV showing Abdel Khalek, dressed in a military fatigue, confessing that he came to Libya in a convoy delivering arms to Libyan rebels and is fighting with them in Ras Lanuf and other Libyan cities, and that he belonged to Al-Qaeda.
Abdel Khalek’s father said in an interview with Al-Akhbar newspaper that his son was forced to make these statements, confirming that his son has no relationship with Al-Qaeda and that he is not affiliated with any political or military groups.
Abdel Khalek, 18, participated in Egypt’s January 25 Revolution and later decided to go to Libya to help after being trained as a paramedic in Raba’ Al Adaweya NGO that was sending aid convoys to Libya.
