Martin Galea says captors ‘forced me to hit myself’

The former Armed Forces captain who disappeared outside Tripoli claims he was kept in captivity by Libyan militias for 10 days, and was made to “attack himself” using a stick with rusty nails in it.

Martin Galea’s interview to The Malta Independent is the first comment to the media by the Nageco employee. On Wednesday, the government said it was refraining from describing the incident as an “abduction”, after it said that no evidence of physical violence was found on Galea.

But Galea is claiming that his captors told him they would kill him. “They said I was still a soldier and had killed many Libyans.”

Galea also said his captor shot twice over his head, first into the wooden door of his cell, with the bullet passing inches close to his head. Galea said that the next day, a guard hit him on the head with a wooden knife handle and tried to attack him again but “used such force that [the handle] flew from his grasp”.

He also said that on the fifth day of his captivity, a militant demanded that Galea give him his wedding ring. Galea refused. “[The militant] got a wooden stick with rusty nails in it and I covered my face, thinking that he was going to hit me, but he said no, you are going to do this to yourself. I was scared. I chickened out and obeyed him.”

Galea showed the marks on his hand from the stick’s nails to Independent reporters. He said that eventually, he surrendered his wedding ring when a guard threatened to cut off his finger.

Galea also spent his birthday in captivity, claiming that a guard told him that he would sexually abuse him as a birthday present.

The next day, two guards shot at the wall of his cell, both shots only missing him by a couple of inches.

He said that his captors also called the Maltese embassy in Tripoli to ask whether it was “normal” for Maltese people to have two passports. They weren’t satisfied with the embassy’s explanation. A day after the phone call, the guards blindfolded and handcuffed Galea and lead him to the back seat of a pick-up. Galea said that at that point, he thought he was about to be executed.

Libyan 'rescuer' claims Galea was not kidnapped

According to Libyan militia leader Ayman al Madani, who spoke to MaltaToday, he played a role in securing Galea’s release and insisted that the Maltese national was not abducted, but taken in by a Warshafana militia when fighting broke out on the road he was travelling on.

In comments by telephone, Al Madani said that he was asked by a Libyan contact in Malta – Khaled Ebrahim Ben Nasan – to enquire about the disappearance of Galea.

Khaled Ebrahim confirmed that Malta’s envoy to Libya Mannie Galea asked him to intervene in the rescue of Galea on midnight of Saturday, 26 July, the day after news was broke that Galea had disappeared.

“When I was told that he had been taken in the As Sawani area, being in the Warshefana, I immediately contacted Ayman Al Madani,” Ebrahim told MaltaToday.

However, in his interview Galea said that he was “abducted” at Al Sawani after being stopped at a roadblock. Once taken to a cell situated next to a main road, Galea said that he told his captors about his military background with the AFM. The militants “looked at me and told me they would kill me. They said I was still a soldier and had killed many Libyans.”