GHANAIAN DIES IN LIBYA

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday April 16, 2010
The alleged inhumane treatment meted out to Africans including Ghanaians in Libya has reared its ugly head once more with the alleged torturing to death of a 37-year old man from Cape Coast in the Central Region by that country’s security agents.

Daily Guide investigations gathered that the man, Kaizer Steven Hemman was picked up on February 15, 2010 and was allegedly tortured to death by blood-thirsty secret agents of the Libyan government.

The deceased’s crime was that he was a close associate of another Ghanaian, Babs Kassim Abdullah (real name Joseph Narh), 56, from La Accra, who had been picked up by the same agents earlier on in January 2, 2010 and is still in detention but also allegedly heavily tortured.

Both are believed to be permanent residents in Libya and worked for Bilfinger and Berger Company which is a subsidiary of Mediterranean Sea Engineering Construction (MSEC) based in Benghazi.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Guide in Accra yesterday, a pastor who spoke on anonymity because he owns a church in Libya said both Kassim and the deceased are members of his church.

He said Kassim worked as Personnel Officer and Camp Manager with badge number 04511in MSEC while the deceased worked in the same company as a Coffee boy who served workers there with coffee.

He said on December 31, 2009, a German called Wilfred Beermann, Commercial Manager and a Libyan called Mahammed Emjawer, Personnel Manager who is also believed to be a secret agent but work with MSEC jointly signed a letter terminating the appointment of Kassim.

The pastor said the letter had indicated that Kassim’s appointment would be terminated on March 31, and added that the two officers were the masterminds of the arrests of the two Ghanaians.

“I made frantic efforts to get my compatriots released but to no avail. I sought the services of a Libyan lawyer but he was afraid to pursue the matter further because he said to me the matter is political.”

“On February 10, 2010, these security agents brought Kassim to his residence to search the whole place after which they placed secret cameras in the house and used it to pick up two more Ghanaians and sent to a deportation camp in Tripoli. When Kassim was brought he looked heavily tortured by these agents”.

“I contacted the Ghana Embassy in Tripoli but they shockingly asked me to go to the Libyan police to report the matter which is a very dangerous thing to do there.”

“Even the Libya police I asked to help me get my compatriots out were afraid to go forward for fear of being tagged anti-Libyan and arrested.”

He said Kassim and the deceased were taken to a dreaded detention facility called Ahmshebi Ahroba in Tripoli.

He also said the deceased was picked up because the agents claimed he had kept a document they were looking for from Kassim but he believes that was a ploy to get Ghanaians and other Africans rounded up in Libya.

“These are people doing genuine work in Tripoli. They have valid permits to live in Libya and have both been there for more than 10 years each.”

“As I speak to you, Kassim is terribly sick and dying slowly but our embassy in Tripoli has not been helpful.”

He said even though he had already contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Accra over the matter he had not seen “any concrete action taken”, warning “ if the ministry does not act swiftly the Libyans will kill Kassim as they did to the 37-year old Kaizer Steven Hemman.”

Also see : www.dailyguideghana.com