Anton Hammerl's death confirmed

The family of Anton Hammerl, a photographer with South African and Austrian dual nationality who had been missing for weeks, said it had reliable information that he died shortly after disappearing. In a message posted on Facebook, the family said “On 5 April 2011, Anton was shot by Gaddafi’s forces in an extremely remote location in the Libyan desert.” Austria’s foreign ministry had said on 25 April that it believed him to be alive and that it was negotiating his release with the authorities in Tripoli (http://en.rsf.org/saudi-arabia-from-tripoli-to-manama-no-let-up-02-05-2011,40212.html). And Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim had indicated on 17 May that he was about to be released along with several other foreign journalists.