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Tag: Ali Zeidan

  • Ex Libyan prime minister gets freedom after Tripoli abduction

    Ex Libyan prime minister gets freedom after Tripoli abduction

    Former Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has been released after being abducted during a visit to the capital, Tripoli, and held for nine days by an armed group, a relative said.

    Zeidan was prime minister from 2012 to 2014, a period when Libya slid deeper into the political turmoil and armed conflict that has plagued the country since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown six years ago.

    He has since been living in Germany with his family.

    It is not clear why Zeidan travelled to Libya or why he was abducted.

    A source said he was being held by a group aligned with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, though he faced no judicial charges.

    The UN-backed government has not commented on the case.

    Tripoli is controlled by a number of the armed groups that have held power in the capital since 2011.

    Some have been given semi-official status by successive governments, but the groups remain unaccountable and involved in criminal activity.

    A lawyer for Zeidan, Moussa Al-Doghali, told France 24 Arabic TV channel that his client was released without explanation and that he did not know the circumstances of his arrest and detention.

    Zeidan was in good health and was staying in a Tripoli hotel following his release, Doghali said.

    In October 2013, Zeidan was briefly abducted from a Tripoli hotel room by an armed group allied to the parliament that sacked him just over a year later.

  • Navy Seals take control of rogue Libya oil tanker

    Navy Seals take control of rogue Libya oil tanker

    The US has taken control of a tanker full of oil loaded from a rebel-held port in Libya, the Pentagon says.

    The raid by Navy Seals took place in international waters south of Cyprus, said spokesman Rear Adm John Kirby.

    The Morning Glory’s evasion of a naval blockade at the eastern port of Sidra prompted Libya’s parliament to sack Prime Minister Ali Zeidan last week.

    The oil terminal has been under the control of militia wanting autonomy for eastern Libya since July 2013.

    This was their first attempt to export oil from rebel-held areas. It is not clear where the tanker was headed.

    Adm Kirby said the operation had been authorised by President Barack Obama and that no-one had been hurt.

    “The Morning Glory is carrying a cargo of oil owned by the Libyan government National Oil Company. The ship and its cargo were illicitly obtained,” he said, adding that it would now be returned to a Libyan port.

    The vessel was flagged in North Korea but officials in Pyongyang said it had been deregistered because of the incident.

    It was said to have been operated by an Egyptian company.

    The BBC’s Rana Jawad in Tripoli says the US move is likely to act as a deterrent to any further attempts to illicitly buy oil from the rebel-controlled ports.

    She says that after backing the 2011 rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi, the US does not want Libya to become a failed state.

  • Libyan PM released

    Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, was released on Thursday several hours after being seized from a Tripoli hotel by former rebel militiamen, the foreign minister said.

    “He has been freed but we have no details so far on the circumstances of his release,” Mohammed Abdelaziz told AFP.

    Government spokesman Mohamed Kaabar told the state LANA news agency that the premier had been “freed, not released”, without saying how.

    He said Zeidan was “in good health” but did not elaborate on what he meant by his not being released.

    Moments before news broke of Zeidan’s release, Deputy Prime Minister Al-Seddik Abdelkarim had vowed that the government would not give into the demands of the perpetrators of a “criminal act.”

    “The government will not give in to blackmail by anyone,” he said.

    The pre-dawn seizure of Zeidan came five days after United States commandos embarrassed and angered Libya’s government by capturing senior Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al-Libi off the streets of Tripoli and took him away on a warship.

    A source in the premier’s office said Zeidan had been taken by gunmen from Tripoli’s Corinthia Hotel, where he resides. A hotel employee confirmed a pre-dawn raid by “a large number of armed men.”

    The cabinet met in emergency session earlier in the morning.

     

  • Libyan PM detained by militia

    Libyan PM detained by militia

    Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, has been seized from his hotel in the capital, Tripoli by a former rebel militia loosely allied to the government.

    The group said it arrested Mr. Zeidan following a prosecutor’s warrant, but the government has denied this.

    An official said he was being held at an interior ministry anti-crime department and being “treated well.”

    There has been anger in Libya over a United States commando raid on Saturday which seized senior al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby.

    BBC reports that many saw the raid as a breach of Libyan sovereignty amid growing pressure on the government to explain if it was involved.

    On Monday, Libya demanded an explanation from the U.S ambassador over the arrest of Mr. Liby, who is wanted in the U.S over the 1998 bombings of U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

    A number of militia groups operate in Libya – they are nominally attached to government ministries but often act independently and, reports say, often have the upper hand over police and army forces.