Mr. Salah Ali Dbie Al Talhi, born 25 June 1965 in Libya and whose family is currently in Benghazi (Libya), had fled the country in December 1990 fearing of being a victim of persecution. He was granted humanitarian asylum by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1997. In 2004, the German authorities revoked his asylum humanitarian and he then left Germany on 3 July 2006 for Switzerland, where his new application for asylum was rejected.

He was arrested by Swiss police on 21 May 2007 as part of his referral procedure and detained in a transit centre in Basel in anticipation of a forcible return to Libya.

On 23 May 2007, he was taken to the Libyan embassy in Bern for formalities regarding the issuance of passport and was, on this occasion, the object of threats from officials of the embassy.

He was then taken to another detention centre for people awaiting removal and extradited in September 2007.

Alkarama heard news through a prisoner released from the Centre of  Internal Security of Ain Zara near Tripoli that he was detained with Mr Al-Talhi in the month of December 2007 and said he saw Mr Al-Talhi for the last time in the Centre on December 10, 2007.

The family of Mr Al-Talhi has also obtained the same information.

Several members of his family have approached the authorities and in particular the services of the internal security of Tripoli to inquire about his fate and the reasons for his continued detention, but without any results. The authorities still continue to deny detaining him.

This is not the first time that European states - particularly Switzerland and Sweden – have deported opponents to Libya on the basis of diplomatic assurances guaranteeing that the person will not be a victim of violations such as torture. This includes Abdelsalam Ibrahim Mohammed who had been deported from Switzerland on November 23, 2007 and detained incommunicado for 5 months before being released on 27 April 2008.