TUNISIA FREES MAN HELD OVER ATTACK ON US CONSULATE IN LIBYA
Tunis, 27 Safar 1434/9 January 2013 (MINA) – Tunisia has freed, for lack of evidence, a Tunisian man who had been suspected of involvement in an attack in Libya last year in which the US ambassador was killed, the lawyer of defendant said.
Ali Harzi was one of two Tunisians named in October by the Daily Beast website as having been detained in Turkey over the violence in which Christopher Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three other American officials were killed, according to Ma’an report received by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) Wednesday (9/1).
“The judge decided to free Harzi and he is free now,” lawyer Anouar Awled Ali told Reuters. “The release came in response to our request to free him for lack of evidence and after he underwent the hearing with American investigators as a witness in the case.”
A Tunisian justice ministry spokesman confirmed the release of Harzi but declined to elaborate.
A month ago, Harzi refused to be interviewed by visiting US FBI investigators over the September 11 2012 assault on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
The Daily Beast reported that shortly after the attacks began, Harzi posted an update on an unspecified social media site about the fighting.
It said Harzi was on his way to Syria when he was detained in Turkey at the behest of US authorities, and that he was affiliated with a militant group in North Africa.
Washington confirmed the death of Christopher Stevens and three civilians in the protests of local residents on film made in the United States who insult Islam in the the US Consulate office, in Benghazi, Libya on 11 September 2012.
The film director Sam Bacile reap many reactions because it is considered insulting Islam. Various demonstrations held in many countries, especially in the Middle East.
Not only that, Muslims in Asia and North Africa on 14 September 2012 held a massive demonstration against the film. (T/R-010/R-006)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
