An Austrian and a Serb who had been held in Libya since last March were released a few hours ago and are now in Malta.

Sources said the extraction of the two Europeans - Austrian Alexander Haas and Serv Babic Radoslav Srja - was facilitated by Malta. The Libyans demanded that once the two were released they should first pass through the Maltese authorities before proceeding to their respective countries.

Both men worked for Argus Security Company in Libya.

The government said in a statement they were released following work between the Maltese, Libyan, Austrian and Serbian authorities and security services.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat informed Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić of the development.

The  government said the situation was discussed between the Maltese and Serbian Prime Ministers during a meeting they had in Belgrade last Saturday.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.