Sale dad seized while on gaza mercy trip (From Messenger Newspapers)

Sale dad seized while on gaza mercy trip

4:50pm Thursday 5th March 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A SALE dad who travelled to Gaza as part of an aid convoy was seized from a hotel in Tunisia.

Almas Ali and six companions - including two women - were grabbed from their rooms without explanation by four men, believed to be from the country’s Interior Ministry.

The group was bundled into vehicles, with the women separated from the men.

During the terrifying ordeal one of the women - who has cancer - claims she was beaten and suffered bruising.

She was so terrified that she tried to jump out of the moving vehicle, but she was grabbed by one of her captors.

Speaking from her Sale home, Almas’s wife, Raquia, told Messenger: “These men turned up from nowhere and grabbed them, they were not given any explanation at all and the men did not show any identification.

“One of the women was beaten and tried to jump out of the vehicle because she feared for her life.”

The party was taken to the Libyan border, where a British embassy official met them.

Their vehicles, which had been searched and the locks damaged, were returned to them and they and were allowed to cross the border.

They met up with the Viva Palestina convoy again in Liibya on Saturday.

Despite the traumatic incident, all but one of the party, are continuing with the convoy.

On Friday, Mother-of-three Raquia, 37, flies out to meet up with them in Cairo.

She said the party had been boosted by a marvellous reception in Libya, where their convoy had met up with another 100-vehicle convoy.

A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that we have provided consular assistance to several British nationals travelling with the Viva Palestina convoy.

“We understand several British nationals were detained. The Tunisian police told us that they were not arrested.

“We have been told by one of the party that one person may have been slightly injured during detention.”

Further details of the convoy on vivapalestina.org Live coverage of the convoy can be seen on Press TV on Sky Channel 515

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)