Briton, New Zealander shot at picnic on Libyan beach
TRIPOLI : A British man and a woman from New Zealand who both worked for an oilfield maintenance firm were killed execution-style with shots to the head as they picnicked on a lonely beach in western Libya, a Libyan security official said on Friday.
The two bodies were found on Thurs-day in the Mellitah area, about 100km west of Tripoli, near a large oil and gas complex co-owned by Italy’s ENI and a residential complex,security sources said.
Giving the first details of the incident, the security official said the Briton, born in 1965, and the New Zealander, born in 1967, had been found lying face down on the beach with gunshot wounds to their heads.
“It doesn’t look like a robbery because there was no break-in at their Toyota car parked nearby. It was left untouched until we came,” said the official, declining to be named.
“ We fonud the bullet,” he said, adding that the two people appeared to have been picnicking on the shore.
The victims worked for Blue Energy, an oilfield maintenance firm, and had been driving to Mellitah in a Tripoli-registered car, the official said.
Britain’s Foreign Office urged Libya to “continue to do all it can to bring to justice the perpetrators of this appalling crime, as it strives to build strong rule of law in Libya”. In Wellington a foreign ministry official said the New Zealand woman was visiting the country at the time of her death.
“The exact circumstance of their deaths is not yet clear and will be subject to an investigation by the Libyan authori-ties,” the foreign ministry statement said.
“The deceased New Zealander was normally a resident in New Zealand and was visiting Libya.
“The family of the New Zealander have requested privacy and asked that no further details be released publicly.”
The ministry said it categorises most of Libya as an “extreme risk, due to the significant threat from terrorism and kid- napping and we advise against all travel”.
Lidya’s security situation has deteriorated in recent months as the government struggles to rein in militias and tribesmen who helped to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and kept their guns.
In a separate incident, authorities released two Americans detained by the army in the violent eastern city of Bengh-azi, the men’s basketball club said.
The men, contracted to play for the al-Hilal club, had been detained on the campus of Benghazi university and taken to the army’s headquarters, Libyan sceur-ity officials said on Thursday, without giving any details. AGENCIES