LIBYAN PRIME MINISTER FREED FROM CAPTIVITY

     Tripoli, 6 Dhul Hijja 1434/10 October 2013 (MINA) – Former opposition have freed Libya’s prime minister Ali Zeidan after holding him for several hours in reprisal for the capture by US forces at the weekend of a Libyan al-Qaeda suspect in Tripoli.

      Shortly after being released on Thursday, Ali Zeidan called on all Libyans to avoid escalation and assured foreign visitors that their safety is not in question.

     The opposition group accused the prime minister of bribery dating back to September, saying Zeidan issued cheques to military guards who had been blocking an oil refinery in east Libya.

     Zeidan was seized at dawn from a luxury hotel where he lives under tight security and was held for about six hours.

      Two years after a revolution ended Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, Libya is in turmoil, with its vulnerable central government and nascent armed forces struggling to contain rival tribal groups and fighters who control parts of the country.

       Speaking to Al Jazeera, quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Middle East analyst Abdel Bari Atwan said the incident confirmed that “Libya is a failed state”.

      “The rebel have the upper hand and the army cannot intervene. It is chaos. This is a huge embarrassment for the government,” Atwan said.

        The opposition group, Libyan Revolutionary Operations Chamber, which had been hired by the government to provide security in Tripoli, said it “arrested” Zeidan after US Secretary of State John Kerry said Libya had a role in the weekend capture in the city of Abu Anas al-Liby.

        “His arrest comes after … (Kerry) said the Libyan government was aware of the operation,” a spokesman for the group said.

       Before his release, an official in the Interior Ministry’s anti-crime department told the state news agency that Zeidan, a former diplomat and an anti-Gaddafi activist who spent years in exile, was being held there and was being treated well.

        The prime minister, who is in his early 60s, was taken from the Corinthia Hotel, where many diplomats and top government officials live. It is regarded as one of the most secure places in Tripoli. (T/P09).

Mi’ra News Agency (MINA)