The spokesman for the former Libyan regime, Moussa Ibrahim, has been captured exactly a year after the death of the former Libyan leader Mohammar Gadhafi, who had ruled Libya for 42 years, the prime minister’s office and state television said. According to the reports, Moussa Ibrahim was caught in the town of Tarhouna, 70 km south of Tripoli.
“Moussa Ibrahim has been arrested by forces belonging to the Libyan government in the town of Tarhouna and he is being transferred to Tripoli to begin interrogation,” a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
The former leader Gadhafi and his son Mutassim, were tortured and killed on Oct. 20, 2011, near the city of Sirte. There were conflicting reports about Moussa Ibrahim, where rebels declared more than once, news of his arrest in the past, but all the news were banished by TNC military forces. So far, no images are displayed to prove his arrest, knowing that local sources in Tarhunah doubted the news of his arrest.
Also on Saturday, the head of Libya’s national assembly, Mohammed Megaryef, said that not all areas of the country have been liberated. The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed,” Megaryef said in remarks broadcast on state television. He singled out the town of Bani Walid, scene of deadly clashes over the past week and one of the final strongholds of Gadhafi’s regime during the 2011 revolution. Bani Walid’s misfortune is that it has become hideout for regime loyalists criminal gangs and mercenaries,” Megaryef said.
Libyan ex-rebels forces began one week ago their biggest security crackdown, after one year since the death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in Bani Walid, located 170 kilometers southeast of Tripoli. Forces encircled the hilltop town, in a bid to bring to justice, the men who kidnapped and allegedly tortured an ex-rebel, credited with capturing Gadhafi. Fighting around Bani Walid, this week, has killed more than 10 people. Sources did not identify neither their identity nor their nationalities.
Megaryef stressed that, “The operations underway do not target this brave city or its people, it rather target culprits, wanted people, the accused and infiltrators among its honorable residents. Earlier, the Human Rights Watch organization reported that the Libyan ex-rebels forces tortured and killed dozens of army servicemen from the Gadhafi convoy of vehicles of which his motorcade was a part.
That happened on the day when Gadhafi was killed, following his overthrow last year. According to the report, the ex-rebels forces massacred those loyal to Gadhafi, near the Mehari hotel in the city of Sirte, right after they captured and disarmed the former Libyan leader’s convoy. Then opposition members executed, without trial, at least 66 Libyan army servicemen they had taken as prisoners.
Official authorities did not comment on this report, knowing that the Human Rights Watch organization has issued several reports showing that in the era of the new Libyan authorities, there are still many violations of human rights.
