Widow asks South Africa to assist in locating the body of photojournalist murdered by Gaddafi

The widow of a UK-based photojournalist killed by soldiers of Col. Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 is pleading with the South African authorities to divulge material she says is critical to finding her husband’s remains.

Anton Hammerl was kept hostage for 44 days before being slain in the May 2011 event that ended in the kidnapping of James Foley, who was ultimately decapitated by Daesh, but his corpse has never been located despite a years-long quest by Widow Penny Sukhraj-Hammerl.

According to the Guardian, the problem is how Hammerl’s passport ended up in the hands of the South African authorities, which returned it to Sukhraj-Hammerl, who feels sharing that information will aid in the search for the photographer’s remains.

“(The passport) was posted to my office in mid-2016. I was quite overwhelmed as I didn’t expect it,” she told the Guardian, explaining that her husband would have been carrying his ID document at the time of his death in a photographer’s waist pouch he wore.

Despite numerous efforts, including a freedom of information request, to learn how South Africa obtained the passport, the government has consistently stonewalled inquiries, according to the Guardian, which led to Sukhraj-Hammerl going public.

“It’s been nearly a year since I first wrote to you and your government to request a meeting regarding the case of my late husband … who was murdered by Gaddafi forces in Libya in April 2011,” she wrote to South Africa’s high commissioner in London, Nomatemba Tambo, copied to the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, earlier this week.

“During this time, we have signalled publicly and privately on several occasions that we would like to meet urgently to discuss a matter of serious concern in the handling of our case. More than a decade since Anton’s death, we still don’t know the location of his remains.

“We still don’t have a grave to visit. We still don’t know the truth. Your administration’s response? Silence.”

Sukhraj-Hammerl told the Guardian: “I’m baffled by their response. They’ve demonstrated no regard for accountability. We’ve requested meetings that have not been granted.

“I feel that they had information that they should have shared with us. So many officials involved that I find it hard to believe that someone doesn’t know something as significant as how a passport came to be handed over.”

Former South African President Jacob Zuma led the family to assume he would discuss the problem on a visit to Tripoli in the latter days of Gaddafi’s leadership in Libya, but no proof exists that he did.

Zuma has since been embroiled in a slew of financial problems, including claims that he got $30 million from Gaddafi, with whom he had a close relationship, to hide on his behalf.

Sukhraj-Hammerl added: “I think we’re calling for justice and truth. We’ve not had the due — as family, we should have had (it). It’s been really distressing. It’s horrid (to) realise (the South African government) had an opportunity to do more and choose deliberately (to) ignore us.

“We have a right to know. They owe us an explanation. It is least that they can do.”

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