Aust lawyer must be released: PM

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Libya must release detained Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor.

“We are calling on the Libyan government to expedite the end of Ms Taylor’s detention,” she told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

“We want to see Ms Taylor’s detention come to an end as soon as possible.”

Ms Taylor, a 36-year-old mother of one, was arrested on Thursday while representing Seif al-Islam, the son of the late former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

She is one of four International Criminal Court (ICC) staff being held in Libya.

Ms Gillard said Australia would work with the government’s of Spain, Russia and Lebanon to press for the release of Ms Taylor and the three others.

They are ICC senior adviser Alexander Khodakov, head of counsel support Esteban Peralta Losilla and translator Helene Assaf.

Ms Gillard said Ms Taylor was being held “in a form of detention” and not in a jail.

She also said Ms Taylor was safe and well.

“We are working as strongly as possible to expedite this matter,” she added.

Later, Ms Taylor’s parents issued a statement asking for their privacy to be respected.

“Our thoughts, at this time, are very much with our daughter, Melinda, and her colleagues,” they said in the statement issued through the foreign affairs department.

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