Summary

To begin this chapter, Matar recalls being asked again by Seif’s assistant to conduct the interview with the Egyptian journalist. When Matar again refused, communications ceased for five months. Upon receiving a message from his Uncle Mahmoud in Abu Salim about worsening conditions, Matar desperately contacted Seif. Two days later, Seif agreed to release Matar’s relatives, and promised to continue to work toward releasing the information on his father. The first step toward this was asking the British government to ask the Libyan Foreign Ministry directly for information on Jaballa Matar. Seif seemed pleased about the situation, yet Matar heard nothing back.

Again, months passed before any further communication between Matar and Seif. In January 2011, “something irreversible had begun” with populist uprisings against dictatorships in both of Libya’s neighbors, Tunisia and Egypt (200). Most likely in an attempt to quell a...