Mahmoud Jibril, Libya’s first post-Gaddafi prime minister, was among a sizeable group of contacts who helped secure the release of oil worker Martin Galea, The Sunday Times of Malta can reveal.

Mr Jibril confirmed his involvement when contacted yesterday in a brief phone call in which he appeared unwilling to go into too much detail.

“Yes, I can confirm that I was involved. I received a call from the Maltese side telling me that a Maltese citizen had been abducted in a certain part of the country and asked if I could mediate and so I got involved,” he said.

He said he called some “influential people” in the Warshefana area, a zone on the outskirts of the capital, populated by former Gaddafi loyalists.

“I reminded them that Malta is a friend and that we need to remain on very good terms with the country and they promised that they would do their best to resolve the matter.”

Mr Jibril headed the transitional government during the 2011 upheaval that overthrew former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi but later resigned as pledged when he had taken office.

The contact took place on Thursday, July 24, a week after Mr Galea’s abduction. On Friday morning he was informed that Mr Galea had been located, and in the evening they called again saying he would be released.

‘My wife went through a trauma worse than mine’

Simultaneously, however, pressure was being exerted on the captors by the former Libyan ambassador to Rome Hafez Gaddur, at least two MPs, one from Warshefana itself, the mayor of Tripoli, Mahdi al-Harati, and militiamen from the Zintan brigade.

The latter are usually at loggerheads with the Warshefana but they are currently allies of sorts in their fight against the Islamists.

The former AFM captain was finally released into the hands of intermediaries, who kept him in a safe house on Sunday. From there he was eventually taken to the Maltese consulate in downtown Tripoli on Monday.

At one point, it looked as though he might be taken to the border with Tunisia, where he would then be flown with some injured Libyans on board an air ambulance but that plan was ditched at the last minute and he was driven directly to the consulate.

The statement by Mr Jibril, which was corroborated by other Libyans who were involved in the negotiations but wished to remain anonymous, puts paid to the mystery of who abducted the former Armed Forces captain.

In comments to this newspaper yesterday, Mr Galea himself confirmed he had seen his captors wearing green scarves from the Gaddafi era and pre-revolution flags at the compound where he was held.

It got into the heads of my captors that I was there to spy

“Also if you look at where we left from and where we were heading, it is clear that we were in Warshefana territory,” Mr Galea said. Speaking five days after his release, Mr Galea said he was feeling much better.

“I am sleeping better now, and am feeling better. It took me a while, even to feel comfortable leaving the house after I returned. We also sought help both for myself and my wife who went through a trauma that is possibly worse than mine,” he said.

He said he was now looking forward to putting his life back together – a consequence of the whole debacle now means he has no job.

Asked if he could explain the motive for his capture, Mr Galea said he does not feel it was a kidnap for ransom.

“I feel that it was a series of things. The fact that I spoke Arabic with a Libyan dialect, my army background and the fact that I was in Libya at the beginning of the revolution all got into the heads of my captors that I was there to spy, possibly on behalf of Islamists,” he said.

Security sources said another factor played a part to put the captors on this train of thought.

“One of the drivers Galea was with, Ayman Ben Shaban, is from Suq al-Juma, an Islamist district of Tripoli. All these things together helped to tip the scales. Wrong place and the wrong time,” the source said.

The man who reported Mr Galea’s abduction, Mahmud Erhebi, from the Arab Geophysical exploration Services Company (AGESCO), also rejected the idea that the company had been asked or had paid for a ransom. However, he was not very forthcoming otherwise, saying that the newspaper should go to the Maltese Embassy with its questions.

Maltese evacuated aboard a catamaran

A group of 25 Maltese nationals arrived on a Virtu Ferries catamaran from Tripoli yesterday evening.

Representatives from the company, which offered them the trip free of charge, went on board the catamaran as soon as it arrived to welcome the Maltese home.

Their trip to Malta was coordinated by the government after company directors offered the remaining spaces on its catamaran chartered by an international company.

Speaking to The Sunday Times of Malta yesterday, Foreign Minister George Vella said that with these Maltese nationals who left Tripoli, the government had pulled out all those who wished to leave from that part of the vast North African country. “The headache now is Benghazi where it appears that Islamists have got the upper hand,” he said.

The situation there is more complex because the airport and the ports are shut.

He said the government was coordinating with Italy and the Philippines to offer Maltese in the eastern city the opportunity to return. Meanwhile, in a positive development, the newly elected Libya Parliament met in the eastern city of Tobruk yesterday and is set to elect a president of the House tomorrow.