Six Copts kidnapped in Libya

Six Coptic men from the same extended family were kidnapped in Libya last week. Their captors asked for a ransom of 15,000 Libyan Dinars (EGP100,000) for each of the victims.

The six men: Mina Kamal Gad Sidrak, Abdel-Messih Gouda Sidrak, Emad Merei Atallah Sidrak, Shenouda Masry Fakhry Shehata, Shenouda Habib Gad Sidrak and Romany Habib Gad Sidrak, are all construction workers, and had left their home village of al-Harja, Sohag, some 500km south of Cairo, for work in Tripoli, Libya. They had taken the legal path to leave Egypt and enter Libya.

Hany Sidrak, bother of one of the victims, told Watani that his brother and cousins, who had been unemployed in Egypt, borrowed money to pay an Egyptian facilitator who organised their trip and helped them complete their paper work legally. Mr Sidrak said that they left Egypt around 10 days ago and entered Libya at Benghazi, with valid travel documents. There, they were received by a Libyan who let them board a vehicle that headed to Sebrata, Tripoli. On the way, they were stopped at a security checkpoint by unidentified men, and were taken to an unknown location. The driver was later released; he called the Copts’ families in Egypt and told them what happened.

A few days later, Mr Sidrak said, one of the kidnapped Copts called home and said they were all being held by an unknown group and that they were kept in a narrow room with other people; he begged the family to rush to pay the ransom money, then the connection was cut off. Mr Sidrak said that the kidnapped Copts again called their families some time later, and persisted in demanding that the ransom money be collected and paid to the kidnappers. They urged him to sell the house they lived in or any personal possession to be able to provide the ransom money. They said their captors beat them, giving them only bread to eat, and that they were hardly able to sleep because of the narrow, overcrowded space they were kept in. They said there were other Egyptians there who had been held for many months.

The devastated family sent pleas to President Sisi, and to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Immigration to intervene in order for the kidnapped to be released.