STAFF WRITER
A PETITION calling on the Libyan government to release South African photojournalist Anton Hammerl has been signed by more than 27 000 people around the world.
Hammerl and three other international journalists have been detained in Libya for the past three weeks.
Hammerl’s family and the Free Anton Hammerl Campaign said today that people from New Zealand, South Africa, the US, Romania, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Australia and England, among others, had signed.
The petition calls for his release and that of US journalists Clare Gillis and James Foley and Spanish photographer Manu Brabo.
While it is unclear how Hammerl came to be detained, the other three were captured while travelling in a volatile area on the outskirts of Brega on April 5.
Nobody has had contact with Hammerl since his disappearance.
Foley’s friends in the US, who started the petition for the release of the four, had initially hoped it would reach 5 000, the Free Anton Hammerl Campaign said.
But over the Easter weekend, the petition had shot up from 10 000 to 20 000 signatures in less than 24 hours, the campaign said.
Two days later, it had jumped from 8 500 signatures to more than 27 000.
The petition can be found at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-captured-American-journalists/