Lo Porto's friends have now launched a petition for his return and are calling on anyone with influence to help secure his release. "Although sometimes I think that if anyone could be friends with his captors, it would be Giovanni." "I am worried that they'll break him – physically and mentally," Neal said. She said his friends were growing increasingly concerned about his well-being. "He is incredibly loyal to his friends and shows that in many small and big ways, you can always rely on him." So that's what he did: he edited, proof-read, and helped bind them until submission closed. "He came to London Met on the day we had to hand in our dissertation purely to help others – he'd already submitted his thesis the day before.
Neal said Lo Porto was an incredibly supportive friend and went out of his way to help others. His approach was always questioning and he certainly had no time for simplistic western policy agendas," said Newman. "He enriched the discussions for all of us by drawing on his varied experience of working in complex situations in many parts of the world. Newman said Giovanni is a "warm, friendly, open-minded person" who was very popular with staff and students. "Pakistan was his real love and he felt he had done a good job there establishing positive relations with the local population and staff. "He told me: 'I'm happy to be back in Asia and Pakistan, I do love the people, the culture and the food of this part of the world'," said Newman. Newman last heard from Lo Porto when he got in touch shortly after arriving in Pakistan. "But he has now been held in Pakistan for nearly two years and we agree with his friends and supporters in Italy who are calling for an end to the policy of silence."Īfter graduating from the peace and conflict studies course at London Met in 2010, Lo Porto, an experienced aid worker, joined short-term projects in the Central African Republic and Haiti before travelling to Pakistan to help rebuild an area hit by severe flooding.Īccording to friends, he fell in love with the region and worked to improve water supplies and sanitation in the Punjab, returning again at the beginning of 2012. "When Giovanni was abducted we hoped that he would be returned through quiet diplomacy," said Professor Mike Newman, who taught Lo Porto at London Met. But after almost two years without news, they have decided to break their silence. Staff and students from London Met have not spoken out until now in the hope that the authorities in Italy, where Lo Porto was born, would be able to negotiate his release. It's been 22 months now and we have no way of knowing how his captors treat him. Sarah Neal, a fellow student and close friend of Lo Porto, said: "I am incredibly worried about him. Apart from one short video appeal by Mühlenbeck released last Christmas, neither man has been heard from.
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