Libyan Olympic chief released by abductors

The president of Libya’s Olympic Committee has been freed a week after he was taken from his car by gunmen in Tripoli, and is now in his home, his deputy said. Nabil Elalem was with a colleague last Sunday when two cars carrying armed men blocked the road, colleagues said. The men told him he had to go with them and sped away, leaving his colleague behind. There had been no news about his whereabouts since. “He was released at 6.30 [yesterday] morning. He is now at his home,” Noureddin El-Krekshi, deputy chief of the committee, said yesterday, without giving details. “He is fine.” Since the end of the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi last year, the interim government has struggled to impose its authority on numerous armed groups who refuse to lay down their weapons. Elalem’s family and colleagues had demonstrated outside the prime minister’s office on Thursday urging the government to do more to find him. Elalem, a former Libyan judo champion, took charge of the Olympic body after its president, Mohammed Gaddafi, one of the deposed dictator’s sons, fled to Algeria last August. Libya’s representatives to the London Olympic Games left for the British capital on Saturday ahead of the 27 July opening. The small delegation is set to compete in judo, swimming, athletics and weight-lifting. Asked if Elalem would go to London, Krekshi said: “Maybe in two or three days time. The Olympic staff have worked hard for his release.” “We’re tremendously relieved,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said. “We were very concerned. We’re very happy it’s come to a successful conclusion.”