Italy Trades 3 Libyan ‘Hit’ Men for 4 Italians Jailed in Libya : Tripoli Sentenced One to Death for Plot Against State

Secret negotiations led to the swap during the night of three members of a Libyan assassination squad held in Italy and four Italians jailed in Libya, the Foreign Ministry said today.

The ministry’s surprise announcement of the swap was issued only after the Libyans had left for Tripoli and the Italians, two of them serving life sentences for plotting against Libya, had returned home in a Red Cross plane.

A ministry spokesman said Italy had been pressing for the release of the Italians for some time on the grounds of ill health.

A breakthrough came when Rome agreed to pardon the three Libyans, who had been jailed as members of a “hit” squad sent to Italy from Libya and posing as students.

Libyan Foe Murdered

Jussef Uhida, one of the three, was jailed for life for the shooting death of a wealthy Libyan businessman opposed to the Libyan regime, Abdul Gelil Aref, in a cafe on Rome’s fashionable Via Veneto in April, 1980.

Aref was one of several Libyan dissidents killed in Italy after Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi warned that he could not guarantee the safety of Libyans abroad if they failed to return home.

The two Libyans released with Uhida overnight were Mohammed Sidki Sajed Dous and Juma Mohammed Ali Mezdawi, both serving terms for the attempted murder of two Libyan businessmen at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport in February, 1981.

Sentenced to Death

One of the freed Italians, building contractor Edoardo Seliciato, was originally sentenced to death by a Libyan court in 1982 on charges of high treason, taking part in a plot against the Libyan state and belonging to a foreign secret service organization.

Libya said Seliciato had confessed to recruiting a Libyan army officer and two civilians in a bid to start an army mutiny at the request of the Egyptian secret service.

Seliciato’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1984. At the same time a second Italian arrested with him and freed Monday night, Enzo Castelli, had his jail term increased from 15 years to life.

The two other Italians pardoned, Mauro Piccin and Massimo Caporali, were both serving 10 years for possession of drugs.

Relations between Italy and its former colony have been severely strained since Libya’s failed missile attack on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in April.

The attack followed U.S. air raids on Tripoli and Benghazi. Libya said a U.S. Coast Guard station on Lampedusa had been used to guide the American planes.

In the weeks after the raids Italy ordered out more than 30 Libyans and Tripoli expelled 25 Italians.