Alkarama today called on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to immediately intervene with Gaddafi's government to ensure the release of these two journalists, fearing that they would be treated in the same way as the BBC journalists, or worse, in view of the current deterioration in the situation in Libya.

Ghaith Abdul Ahad, still detained in Libya; and Feras Killani tortured for 21 hours, now released.

Ghaith Abdul Ahad, an Iraqi journalist working for the British newspaper The Guardian and Andrei Netto, a Brazilian working for the O Estado de Sao Paulo entered Libya over the Tunisian border and were travelling in the area outside Az Zawiah on Monday 7 March 2011. It seems that they were in the nearby town of Sabratah, when government forces abducted them. They have been detained since, and until yesterday, Thursday 10 March, their whereabouts and fate remained unknown. Following contacts by their Newspapers with the Libyan authorities, the latter recognized holding the two journalists on Thursday, but refused to say where or why they were being held and what fate awaited them.

Alkarama is concerned about the fate of these two journalists, knowing the treatment which Gadaffi's forces have subjected other foreign journalists to.

On Monday 7 March, 3 journalists from the BBC's team in the Tripoli region were arrested. Goktay Koraltan, a Turkish national; Feras Killani, a Palestinian Syrian and Chris Cobb-Smith, a British national, were abducted by security forces at a checkpoint near Az Zawiah.

They were taken to barracks in the area and interrogated, accused of being spies for the United Kingdom. All of the journalists were beaten and mistreated. For example, Feras Killani was beaten with sticks, rubber pipes and the butt of AK-47 rifles. He was told to kneel with his hands behind his head, and the interrogators then cocked an automatic with the muzzle of the gun against Killani's head. The next morning, all three men were lined up facing a wall and a gun was successively placed behind each person's neck; two bullets were then shot past the head of Chris Cobb Smith, in a clear attempt to simulate an execution. The journalists were released later that day.

However, Ghaith Abdul Ahad and Andrei Netto remain in detention, and are likely being treated in the same way.

Alkarama calls for the immediate release of the two journalists, as well as all those detained by Gadaffi's forces since the beginning of the events in Libya on 15 February 2011.