Libyan amputees set to return home

A group of Libyan men treated in Scotland for injuries they received during last year's uprising are set to return home. Nine men wounded during the country's civil unrest were treated in hospitals. They all required prosthetics treatment by the NHS at the West of Scotland Mobility and Rehabilitation Centre in Glasgow. The men are part of a group of 65 Libyans who are being cared for in the UK. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon met the nine war victims before their departure. She said: "Scotland offers excellent specialised prosthetics care and it is right that we were able to offer this quality of care to others who urgently needed it. "All of the patients suffered lower-limb amputations and one is a bilateral amputee, and they will be returning home to Libya having received the life-changing prostheses and support they required." Mostafa Benhalima was 18 when he was shot trying to tie a liberation flag to the roof of his house in Libyan capital Tripoli. The third-year economics student said: "I thought I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life but now I can walk again. I am looking forward to going back to Libya to finish my studies and to help in building a democratic country. I miss my mother a lot. I felt sorry for her when I was shot but thankfully I am returning home a different person." Abdulminum El-Zair, from BeniWalid, 34, said: "I was hit with a rocket in September. A lot of people died that day and my uncle died a few days later. I lost my right leg but I would have given my life to liberate Libya from Gaddafi and his regime." The group will return to Libya over the next few weeks as their treatment comes to an end. All costs are being provided by the new Libyan authorities.