Libyan dissident recalls disobeying Qaddafi’s orders

February 21 was in a critical day in the life of Libyan war pilot Ali Farag for that was the day he made the decision to disobey the order of late leader Muammar Qaddafi when he refused to bomb Benghazi.

“My conscience would have never allowed me to kill me my people no matter what the consequences were going to be,” he told Al Arabiya.
Farag explained that after committing what the Colonel considered a crime, there was no way he could stay in Libya and he had no option other than fleeing to Malta.

Farag said that he would never forget the fear that overcame him after he made his decision not only because of what might have happened to him, but also owing to the possible retaliation of Qaddafi and his forces against his family.

“I was so worried about my family and my wife Nagiya lived in constant fear whether because she was worried about what might happen to me in Malta or what might happen to our children who might have become the victims of Qaddafi’s forces.”

However, he added, his wife has always been proud of her husband’s bravery.

After seven years of exile in Malta, Farag is finally back in Libya after the death of Qaddafi and the fall of his regime at the hand of the revolutionaries.

“I have bid farewell to estrangement and I will never forget this decision I made and which was the hardest in my entire life,” he concluded.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)