MOSCOW. Feb 2 (Interfax) - A Belarusian military specialist has been freed in Libya through the efforts of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, and the Russian contact group on Libya led by Lev Dengov, according to Dengov.
Vyacheslav Kachura was detained by insurgents in Libya in 2011, Dengov told Interfax.
"After we received the request from the head of the Republic of Belarus, I was in constant contact with the Libyan authorities. We ensured Kachura's transfer to a prison with good living conditions, we visited him, we met from time to time," he said.
"The previous attempts to free Kachura failed until Russia intervened in the release process: he could not be freed for six years," Dengov said.
He said the plane carrying Kachura had just landed in Minsk.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has confirmed the release of Kachura and his arrival in Belarus.
"Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Kachura, the last of the Belarusian citizens who have been forcibly held in Libya since August 2011 by a so-called revolutionary brigade, returned to his home country on February 2," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said his release became possible as a result of sustained and dedicated work and, above all, "the efforts taken by friends of Belarus from many countries."
"The Foreign Ministry thanks all our foreign partners who helped successfully resolve the issue of the Belarusian citizen's release," the ministry said.
Kachura arrived in Libya in June 2011 with a group of international experts from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In August 2011, they were detained by insurgents and accused of cooperating with the Muammar Qaddafi regime. Some of the detainees were later freed, but there has been no definite information on Kachura's fate until now.