Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has said that a political party planned his detention on Thursday, without disclosing further details.
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has said that a political party planned his detention on Thursday, without disclosing further details.
“Kidnapped” for some hours in the capital Tripoli, Zeidan was freed on Thursday morning and held a press conference later that day but did not reveal much information, Xinhua reported.
Zeidan said he would disclose more details in the coming days, with another press conference expected on Friday.
An armed group stormed a luxury hotel in downtown Tripoli in the wee hours of Thursday and took Zeidan away to an unknown location.
For three hours, Libyan authorities lost track of the prime minister until personnel belonging to the Counter Crime Agency in Tripoli stated that Zeidan was held at their office, south of the capital.
The Counter Crime Agency said they captured Zeidan after an arrest warrant was issued by the president of Libya’s General National Congress, Nuri Sahmain.
Counter Crime Agency spokesman Abdulkarim Belazi said on Thursday evening that Sahmain had been aware of the arrest order against Zeidan and had approved it but the execution had to be delayed due to Zeidan’s recent visit to Morocco.
Sahmain immediately denied having issued any such warrant.
The head of the Counter Crime Agency in Tripoli‘s Fornaj district, Abdelmonem Al-Said, is under investigation by the attorney general for his role in the kidnapping, a source in the attorney general’s office said.
The plan to seize Zeidan was likely to have been hatched a week ago, which has prompted speculation that Zeidan’s abduction was a reaction to the US raid in Tripoli to capture alleged Al Qaida suspect Abu Anas Al-Liby on Oct 5.
The US move fanned anger among Libya’s powerful Islamist militant groups. Several groups accused Zeidan of being an accomplice to the US operation.
-IANS
