Accra, May 9, GNA - Thirteen members of the Supporters Union of Ghana (SUGHA) who left Accra via Milan last Friday to watch the Accra Hearts of Oak and Etoile Du Sahel Confederation of African Football (CAF) MTN Champions League third round match were subjected to a terrifying seven-hour ordeal at the Tunis airport before they were eventually deported.

A physically shaken Sarfo Abebrese, President of SUGHA who led the contingent narrated his group's ordeal to GNA Sports, saying their troubles started immediately the Alitalia flight which carried them from Milan touched down at the Tunisian Airport.

"Our plane was surrounded by about 50 armed police men under instructions from the Head of Police in Tunisia who claimed that he had been hinted that we were trouble makers sent down to disrupt the said match.

"They also proceeded to search our luggage thoroughly and when they found nothing to back their claims, they proceeded to seize the luggage."

Mr Abebrese said during the seven hour wait at the Tunis airport, he called Tommy Okine the Acting Chief Executive of Hearts who by then was in Sousse and Okine urged them to resist them as their contingent went through similar ordeal on arrival in Tunisia.

He said based on Okine's information, he tried all his best to convince the Tunisia that they were ordinary football supporters and not thugs but the Tunisian would not yield.

"We were there when the Tunisian who takes care of Ghanaian interests in that country (Ghana has no embassy in Tunis) arrived. "But after moving back and forth negotiating, he also gave up and left claiming that there was nothing more that could be done to salvage the situation.

"After staying at the Tunis airport for over seven hours without food and water, I was made to pay 1,400 dollars for which no receipt was issued and our passports were put in one envelope and given to the pilot of the plane that brought us.

"We were then bundled unto the same plane that brought us from Milan back to Italy"

Mr Abebrese said on reaching Milan, they were made to disembark through the rear of the plane and were immediately put on Police cars and driven to a deportation camp for illegal immigrants, far away from the airport.

He said not even their pleas for food and water were heeded until late in the night when the Police Commander in charge of the camp arrived.

"It was after I had told him that I was a lawyer called to the bar in Ghana and America and that I have a five-year entry vise to UK, USA and Canada that he realized we were not criminals. "On realizing this, the officer ordered our release and asked that we should be given food and returned to the Airport to be sent back to Ghana."

Mr Abebrese said they finally touched down in Ghana in the early hours of Monday after their two days' ordeal and were asked to go home and report to the immigration office the following morning to give statements.

Giving a background on how the whole trip came about, Mr Abebrese said SUGHA faxed covering letters from the GFA and Hearts of Oak to the Tunisia Association, expressing their interest to travel to support Hearts in their match against Etoile on April 26, 2006.

He said based on the reply of the Tunisians of April 29, they proceeded to the Italian Embassy to take transit visas. "What is more boggling was the fact that before we boarded the plane from Milan to Tunis, the Italian Immigration Officers had called the Tunisians to verify if they knew of our arrival and the Tunisians gave the clearance, hence I do not know what happened within that short time to warrant such treatment."

Mr Sarfo Abebrese is therefore pleading with the Government and the Ghana Football Association to help them retrieve their seized luggage in Tunis and ensure that appropriate compensation is paid to his members.