Fleeing soldier returned to Tunisia from Libya

A military source confirmed that the Tunisian authority retrieved, Tuesday, one of its soldiers from the Ben Guerdane regiment, who had fled late Sunday to Libya in his military uniform, carrying his weapons. General Mokhtar Ben Nasr, National Defense Ministry Spokesman, stated that last Sunday the absence of soldier Hamza Laghmani, born in 1988, was discovered, while he was supposed to be on duty to guard the area near the Tunisian-Libyan borders. He added that National Army units conducted extensive searches but could not find the Tunisian soldier. The Tunisian military authority was reported on Monday that said soldier arrived in Libya, where he turned himself to Zuwara security and requested political asylum, on the pretext that he is sentenced to death, according to statements by the Libyan authorities upon handing the soldier over. General Ben Nasr stated that the soldier’s escape, who returned in good health, was an attempt to escape his military duty and seek a job with his uncle currently living in Libya. He refuted the news of his kidnapping by a Libyan group to swap him with Baghdadi Mahmoudi, Gaddafi’s  former prime minister, who is imprisoned in Tunisia.