Brazilian journalist Andrei Netto, who was arrested nine days ago while reporting the ongoing unrest in Libya, left the North African nation on Friday, local media reported.

Netto, who was released on Thursday, headed to Dubai and later to Paris.

According to the Libyan embassy in Brazil, Netto was arrested because he failed to provide proper identification documents to Libyan police.

Netto, who works for daily Estado de S. Paulo, lost direct contact with his superiors last week, when he was working in the outskirts of Zawiya, 50 km west of Libya's capital city Tripoli.

After that, Estado de S. Paulo asked for help from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.

Netto's release came after Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff demanded immediate action from the Foreign Ministry and the Brazilian Senate's Human Rights Committee sent a formal protest to the Libyan embassy.