TRIPOLI, Libya — Four individuals are under arrest in the case of a woman who burst into a hotel and told foreign journalists she had been raped and tortured by men connected to the regime of Col. Moamar Ghadafi, a government spokesman said Sunday.
Moussa Ibrahim also told reporters at a press conference that the woman, Eman al Obaidi, was “safe, free and with her family.”
Ibrahim said there was a criminal case against the four men, whom he did not identify, and they had a lawyer.
He also described it as an “honor-related case, a very serious case,” but declined to take any further questions saying, “we need to protect her privacy.”
Obaidi was manhandled by waitresses and government minders Saturday as she attempted to speak to journalists at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli.
She claimed she had been held for two days, and that she had been raped and tortured by men connected to the regime. She showed marks on her legs and on her wrists, which she suggested came from handcuffs.
As journalists tried to speak to her, police minders waded in, trying to physically cover her mouth to stop her talking.
Earlier, deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim suggested to Sky News the alleged sexual assault took place when Obaidi went to a pre-arranged meeting with at least one of the men.
However, in the snatched words she had with reporters, Obaidi was insistent that she had been picked up at a checkpoint because her identification showed she was from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
At his news conference, Ibrahim said Obadai, who was physically removed from the hotel, had been released from government custody because she “hasn’t committed, you know, any particular major offense. She just entered a place she wasn’t supposed to enter.”
He added that authorities had asked her and her family if they wanted to be interviewed by a small number of reporters to verify that she was safe.
For more on this story, please go to Sky News.