The Libyan People’s General Committee in Charge of External Relations and International Cooperation has denied the presence in the country, of foreign tourists kidnapped Monday in an Egyptian desert. Libyan press agency (JANA), is quoted as denying that the kidnapped tourists and their abductors were presently on the Libyan soil. Eleven people, including five Germans, five Italians and a Romanian, as well as two tourist guides and an officer of the Egyptian border police, were kidnapped Monday afternoon, while crossing the desert, in the South of Egypt. A Sudanese official declared Thursday that the abductors and their hostages had illegally entered the Libyan territory. Tripoli immediately denied the allegation, describing it as pure lies. Later in the evening, there was information that the kidnapped tourists were still at Djebal Aowainat, on the borders of the desert between Sudan, Egypt and Libya. The kidnappers are requesting a US$ 6 million ransom, to be solely paid by the German government.
