Five arrested after rape and torture claims
Libya’s deputy foreign minister Khalid Kaim revealed the men detained as part of a investigation into the rape allegations made by Iman al-Obeidi.
The Libyan woman stormed into a Tripoli hotel on Saturday to tell foreign reporters that government troops raped her, setting off a brawl when hotel staff and government minders tried to detain her.
In reference to yesterday’s the dramatic scenes, Kaim acknowledged that the security staff had “mishandled” the incident, and that no weapons should have been drawn.
Iman al-Obeidi was tackled by waitresses and government minders as she sat telling her story to journalists after she rushed into the restaurant at the Rixos hotel where foreign journalists were eating breakfast.
She claimed loudly that troops had detained her a checkpoint, tied her up, abused her, then led her away to be gang raped.
Her story could not be independently verified, but the dramatic scene provided a rare firsthand glimpse of the crackdown on public dissent by Muammar Gaddafi’s regime as the Libyan leader fights a rebellion against his rule that began last month.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said that investigators told him al-Obeidi was drunk and seemed to be suffering mentally, but he retreated from that position. He said she was in safe custody and her claims were being investigated but as a criminal, not a political case.
Before she was dragged out of the hotel, al-Obeidi said that she was detained by troops at a Tripoli checkpoint on Wednesday. She said they were drinking whiskey and handcuffed her. She said 15 men later raped her.
“They tied me up ... they even defecated and urinated on me,” she said. “The Gaddafi militiamen violated my honour.”
The woman, who appeared in her 30s, had scratches on her face and she pulled up her robe to reveal a bloodied thigh.
As she spoke, a hotel waitress brandished a butter knife, a government minder reached for his handgun and another waitress pulled a jacket tightly over her head.
