TUNIS
The Tunisian government on Friday said it had no information regarding the reported death of two journalists kidnapped in September in Libya by militant groups.
"Up till now, there is no credible information confirming reports about the death of the two kidnapped journalists," a statement issued by the government's crisis committee read.
The committee, for its part, called on the Libyan government to "shoulder its responsibility to safeguard the safety of Tunisian nationals on Libyan soil."
On Thursday, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group in Libya's eastern town of Barca announced it had executed the two journalists, according to a statement disseminated by Jihadist websites that included photos of the two men.
The purported ISIL statement, however, has not been independently verified, while the Tunisian government has yet to produce any clear information regarding the two men's fate.
The pair was abducted in Libya last September while working for Tunisia's privately-owned "First" TV channel.
Libya has largely remained in a state of lawlessness since the 2011 ouster and death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi
Tunisians rally in support of abducted journalists
The National Union for Tunisian Journalists on Friday staged a demonstration in capital Tunis to demand the truth.
Dozens of reporters and activists waved banners to show solidarity with the abducted journalists and called for their immediate release, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent.
"Our demonstration today is meant to show solidarity with our colleagues, Sefian Shawarbi and Nazir al-Qatari," Naji Baghouri, the head of Tunisia's journalists' syndicate, told AA.
"It [the rally] is a clear response to terrorist organizations that they won't deter us and that we will never give up defending freedom of speech and expression," Baghouri said.
"We support Sefian and Nazir and demand that the truth be revealed regarding their fate and that they be returned safely to Tunisia," he added.
He went on to say that the syndicate was in touch with the Tunisian authorities – along with several Libyan backchannels – in hopes of determining the pair's whereabouts.
Sami al-Qatari, the father of Nazir al-Qatari, told AA that he had "urged the government of [former Tunisian] Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa to… take the matter seriously."
"It is a life-and-death situation," he said. "We're in a race against the clock."
"It's been 128 days since their abduction and we've yet to locate them, despite the fact that Tunisia possesses all the means necessary for finding them," the senior al-Qatari said.
