AN Australian aid worker has been
prevented from leaving Libya after being caught up in a police
investigation into a senior official.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr says aid worker Alexandra Bean had been
stopped from leaving the country at Tripoli Airport by Libyan
authorities wanting to question her over matters unrelated to her.
Senator
Carr said Ms Bean had not been arrested and had since been released,
but could not leave the country while police conduct their inquiry.
Ms Bean has spoken to consular officials in Cairo, who will continue to assist her as much as is required.
Senator
Carr said Ms Bean should have the right to leave the country but Libyan
authorities were concerned that if she left the country she may not
return.
"We will protect her, in these circumstances, as we protect any Australian in this sort of position," Mr Carr said in New York.
Fairfax Media reported that Ms Bean, 30, may have been embroiled in
rumours she had been sexually assaulted by a senior Libyan health
official.
In June, Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor and her three
International Criminal Court (ICC) colleagues were detained by Libyan
officials for allegedly carrying documents for the imprisoned son of
Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, that were considered a threat to
national security.
She was freed after a personal intervention by Senator Carr.
Ms
Bean was working in Libya for the International Organisation for
Migration, an intergovernmental organisation established in 1951 to
facilitate humane and orderly migration.
It provides services and advice to governments and migrants in more than 100 countries.
Senator
Carr said Ms Bean would be provided with consular assistance but not
legal assistance, in keeping with Australian government practice.
Her
brother, James Bean, said his sister had been detained and questioned
by men, without a lawyer or other women present, about alleged sexual
offences.
She needed help, he said.
"We have a young Australian woman facing some pretty horrible allegations about her," Mr Bean told ABC radio.
"Why doesn't this warrant sending a consular official to provide her with assistance?"
Mr Bean said his sister was now staying with friend in Tripoli and just wanted to get out of Libya to "decompress".
She
was stopped at Tripoli airport and had her passport confiscated as she
tried to leave the country, after refusing to sign an Arabic document
without a translation.
No comments:
Post a Comment