The Dutch marines were met at the Athens airport by Dutch government officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Ed Kronenberg who headed the delegation that negotiated their release.
“The people have been very well taken care off, they are in good health and in good shape,” Kronenberg told reporters. “They will be flying back to the Netherlands very soon.”
The marines were arrested on February 27th at Sirte in northern Libya, when they tried to rescue a Dutch engineer and another European by helicopter.
The Dutch Defence Ministry confirmed the operation was carried out without authorisation from Libya, whose soldiers prevented the helicopter from taking off.
The civilians were later handed over to the Dutch embassy in Tripoli and returned to the Netherlands on March 2nd.
The marines’ release was announced on Thursday by the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam.
“Today we are going to hand over the Dutch soldiers to the Maltese and Greeks,” he told Reuters.
“We told them, don’t come back again without our permission. We captured the first Nato soldiers, we are sending them back home. But we are still keeping their helicopter.”
The Greek government said on Thursday night that it had dispatched the C-130 to Libya to pick up the freed marines after an agreement was achieved during a meeting earlier in the day between deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Dollis and Muammar Gaddafi emissary Mohamed Tahir Siala.
Shortly after the marines’ arrival in Athens, Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal called his Greek counterpart Dimitris Droutsas to thank him for the Dutch marines’ safe transport.
(source: ana-mpa)
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