ROME (Sputnik) – In July 2015, four Italians, working for the construction company Bonatti, were kidnapped in western Libya, near the Mellitah Oil and Gas Complex, the starting point of the Greenstream pipeline, jointly operated by the Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni and the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC).
"I would like to clarify that there was no ransom paid for the release of the hostages," Gentiloni stated, speaking in the Senate, the upper house of the Italian parliament.
According to the Libyan media reports, Italians have been in the hands of a Tunisian terrorist group and their kidnappers allegedly demanded 12 million euros ($13 million) to free them.
There was no evidence that the Islamic State extremist group could have been behind the abduction, Gentiloni stressed, adding that the kidnapping seemed to have been perpetrated by local criminal groups with Islamic ties.