Russians Find Five Captured Serbs in Libya

Two correspondents from the Moscow daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda said the five detained Serbs, who told them they were construction workers, begged for help. “Please help us,” they told reporters Aleksander Koc and Dmitry Steshin.

The Russians identified the men as Zoran Nikolic, Nedeljko Milanovic, Milorad Junic, Milic Martinovic and Vojislav Niciforovic.

The correspondents reported that the prisoners urgently needed “legal and diplomatic help” because no one knew where to look for them.

They said the Serbs were being held "in improvised detention" in a facility where they were forced to sleep on the floor, but their captors were "not beating them and they are giving them food".

The reporters said they managed to find the men after they interviewed a rebel leader put in charge of the airport in Tripoli.

Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac on Friday denied that the five Serbs were members of the Serbian Army.

The five Serbs told the Russians that they were construction workers who came to Libya on 12 August to repair roads for a Serbian-Libyan firm, Zazura, which had promised them good pay.

When the fighting reached Tripoli, the Serbs, reportedly then staying in a hotel, were arrested at a road block.

They said a group of armed men stopped them, saw their passports and accused them of "aiding Gaddafi". They escaped and hid in houses in Tripoli but were arrested again while trying to reach the Serbian embassy.

The Serbs, who have now been confirmed as construction workers, have been transferred to the town of Zintan in western Libya and the Serbian Defence Ministry has confirmed that the Serbian Embassy in Tripoli is in touch with them.