TRIPOLI – Four journalists detained by Col Muammar Gadafy’s military have been released after six weeks in custody and then told they could remain in the country if they wished.
The reporters, identified as Briton Nigel Chandler, Americans Clare Gillis and James Foley, and Spanish photographer Manu Brabo were brought to the Rixos hotel in the capital, where governmen spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said their rooms for the evening would be paid for by the authorities.
The journalists had been charged with entering the country illegally and were given one-year suspended sentences. There was no sign of a South African journalist, identified as Anton Hammerl, believed still missing. – (Guardian service)