Libya: House of Representatives begins it work

The newly elected House of Representatives pressed ahead as planned and held its opening session on 4 August in Tobruk. Around 158 members of the 188 representatives who have been elected to the house so far attended the session with most of them from the liberal and federalist currents.

The Islamists’ efforts to hold the handover of power in Tripoli, rather than in the east, were a complete failure and, predictably, led to the session being boycotted by the Misratans and the Islamists, who insisted that it was unconstitutional. Even their attempts to hold a parallel meeting in the capital proved disastrous and their number was so small that no-one turned up.

Meanwhile, members of the outgoing GNC made an appeal to the Supreme Constitutional Court to rule on whether the sessions in Tobruk are legal because they should have been held in Benghazi. However, no decision will be forthcoming any time soon because the court is on holiday until September.

Despite the fuss they are making, however, the Islamists have been completely outmanoeuvred by their liberal rivals. On top of the fact that such a large number of MPs attended, the first session of the new ruling body was given international recognition through the attendance of representatives of Arab and other foreign governments, as well as from the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Africa Union (AU). Further legitimacy was afforded to the house when representatives from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and the US - who held a meeting in Washington this week on the margins of the US-Africa Summit - gave their backing to the House of Representatives.

It, therefore, seems that Libya and the rest of the world is accepting the new house as a fait accompli despite the Islamists and Abu Sahmaine’s objections. This has left the Islamists in an extremely weak position and means that their winning the battle on the ground is more important than ever. As such, Libya might well end up having a political arena dominated by the liberals while the ground itself is in the hands of the Islamists.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Kidnapped Maltese oil worker released unharmed

A Maltese oil worker abducted by a Libyan militia on 17 July was released unharmed yesterday. According to a report, 42 year old Martin Galea has already flown back to Malta after eleven days in captivity.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat welcomed the retired armed forces captain on the tarmac at Malta airport and thanked the diplomatic service, the army and the Muslim community in Malta for helping secure his release.

Galea is an employee of Arab Geophysical Exploration Services and was abducted from the suburbs of Tripoli while he was being driven to work.

The Maltese government said that no ransom was paid for Galea's release and that it was too early to say who had abducted him or why. Given the increased spate of kidnappings by criminal gangs, however, the motivations are just as likely to have been financial rather than ideological.

Although he did not elaborate, Galea said the Maltese consul in Tripoli, Marisa Farrugia, had saved his life. A Maltese government official stated "We will fill in the blanks only after the Security Service has spoken to him. So far what we know for a fact is that he has been released and that was our priority.”

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: In-fighting between Islamist militias in Derna

Besides the ongoing fighting in Tripoli and Benghazi another flashpoint has emerged in the eastern coastal town of Derna. Unlike the current conflict in Libya’s two largest cities the clashes in Derna are between rival militant Islamist groups rather than between mainstream Islamist and liberals. A major battle has developed between two main groups: the Abu Slim Martyrs Brigade and the Majlis Shura Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna (the Shura Council of the Youth of Islam in Derna) and its allies.

This battle is mainly one for control over the town but there are also distinct differences of ideological approach. The Abu Slim Martyrs Brigade was formed during the revolution and comprises mainly former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Its cadres were formed during the era when national militant movements emerged out of the Afghanistan war of the 1970s and returned home to challenge authoritarian regimes.

The Majlis Shura Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna is completely different. Formed very recently, its members are generally young and aspire to more transnational jihadist ideologies and movements. The group reportedly includes a number of young Libyans who returned from fighting in Syria, Mali and Algeria.

These militant groups have become increasingly embroiled in a tit-for-tat battle of killings and revenge killings that have seen some key commanders on both sides assassinated.

Meanwhile some of the groups that are affiliated with the Majlis Shura Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna are now declaring their allegiance to ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria. This includes the recently emerged Al-Bata’a Brigade and the Abu Mahjan Al-Ta’ifi Brigade, whose emir declared his support for Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS, after he declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. As a symbol of this support a group of 50 mujahedeen, including fighters, doctors and oil engineers, was sent to Iraq to support the cause. The 50 also included a number of jihadists who are willing to sacrifice themselves as suicide bombers.

That these brigades and groups are allying themselves with ISIS is a worrying development which brings a whole new dimension to the militancy that has implanted itself in Derna and elsewhere in the country.

For further analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

IOCs evacuate staff from Libya

Italian energy giant, ENI, has responded to the escalating violence in the capital by moving fifteen members of its staff out of Tripoli. The employees were moved to the offshore Bouri oilfield before being whisked away to Malta and onto Italy.

French company Total has also moved its staff out of the capital, getting them out of the country by road to Tunisia. The United Nations has also pulled its remaining staff out of the country. 

Following the abduction and beheading of a Filipino construction worker on 15 July, the Philippines government ordered its estimated 13,000 nationals in Libya to leave the country, instructing them to contact the embassy in Tripoli for instructions on "mass evacuation."

Yet how such evacuations are going to take place while the airport is out of action and with little prospect of its restarting operations any time soon is unclear. 

Although the airport at Zawara is preparing to take both domestic and international flights, it is still going to take several days before it is in a position to do so. It also still requires the agreement and support of the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority. More importantly there are still question marks over safety and insurance issues.  

Meanwhile there are growing fears about evacuation by road given that the confrontation has now spilled beyond the airport area and out to Janzour. 

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya's Brega Port under siege as guards prevent exports

Libya’s energy sector was dealt another blow on 11 July when a group of protesters from the Oil Facilities Guard closed down the Brega Port and prevented a cargo that was in the port from loading.

The members of the guard are demanding that they be paid their backdated salaries, just as those members of the guard who were blocking the ports of Es-Sider, Ras Lanuf have been paid. One of the guards told the Turkish media on 11 July that “we closed Brega today as they haven’t given us our financial dues for several months. We will prevent all ships from being loaded with fuel. There is a cargo [in the port] and we won’t allow it to load oil until we receive our dues in full.”

Brega, run by the NOC’s Sirte Oil Company subsidiary, is a relatively small port with a 90,000 b/d capacity that has lately been used to supply the Zawia refinery. Its closure is a challenge given the troubles with the eastern oil export terminal ports over recent months and the fact that it will still take a while before operations are back to normal in Ras-Lanuf and Es-Sider, handed over earlier this month.

Given that the protesters are making purely financial demands the situation should be resolved easily enough. Despite this, with the political scene in such chaos and with the economic situation in deep crisis, how long it will take the government to resolve this standoff has yet to be seen.

Meanwhile, workers at the 103 Oil Field 200 km from Ajdabiya and operated by the Zuetina Oil Company stopped working this week. On 9 July the workers began an open sit-in at the field in protest against the company’s board. It is not clear exactly what it is about the board that the workers are protesting about, but they are refusing to leave unless their demands are met.

The good news, however, is that the agreement between the head of the Cyrenaican Transitional Council (CTC) politburo, Ibrahim Jedhran, and the government appears to be holding despite the fragility of the situation on the ground. It was reported this week that foreign workers have returned to work in the oil fields in Jalu and that European companies are restarting their operations.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Selwa Bughagis is shot dead in Benghazi

The Benghazi lawyer and women’s rights activist, Selwa Bughagis, was shot and killed in her home on 25 June by unidentified gunmen.

She had just returned from casting her vote in the elections and had also appeared on Libyan television where she had criticised the militias operating in Benghazi. She declared, “These are people who want to foil elections. Benghazi has been always defiant, and always will be despite the pain and fear. It will succeed.”

It is not clear who was behind her killing but it was presumably the work of Islamist militants. Her husband, who was recently elected to the municipal council in Benghazi, was also abducted in the attack and has not been seen since.

The only witness in the attack - an Egyptian called Ahmed Abdelkader who used to work for Bughagis, and who was shot in the leg in the assault - has since died in mysterious circumstances. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be giving evidence to the police his body was discovered bearing signs of torture.

Bughagis’s death touched deep chord with many Libyans. She had been a prominent figure during the 17 February revolution and beyond and her death was devastating for many. Between 400-500 mourners gathered for her funeral at Benghazi’s Hawari cemetery this week.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates


 

Libya's 2014 Budget is finally passed

On 22 June the long awaited 2014 Budget originally submitted to the Congress in January by the then Prime Minister, Ali Zidan, was passed. This came as a surprise to some Congress members who had expected to debate the issue in a session on the 22 June. Having waited almost all day for there to be enough members present to reach 94 - the required number of members present to be able to hold an official consultative session - the Congress was told that the budget had been passed on a technicality.

As Libya Politics & Security – 16.06.14 explained, the Al-Thanni government declared last week that the Congress had 120 days from the budget’s initial submission to debate the law, after which time the government had the right to issue a financial mandate to ratify it. Al-Thanni therefore scored a bit of a coup by getting the law passed in this way, despite the fact that certain Congress members were keen for the budget to be reduced. 

The Central Bank may, however, still object to the budget being passed in this fashion, although it is not clear whether it has a legal right to do so. The budget stands at LD56.5 billion (US$45 billion). Given the crisis in revenues caused by the disruptions at the oil ports, a significant portion of this money is expected to come from a reserve fund at the Central Bank that was set up by Colonel Qadhafi as a fund for future generations. Whether the Central Bank will agree to this fund being used also remains open to question. 

It is clear, however, that Libya cannot fund itself from oil revenues alone. The budget committee in the Congress based the 2014 budget on a projected annual oil production of 600,000 b/d but the country has clearly fallen woefully short of this. Thus drawing on this LD16 billion fund, plus some of the central bank’s foreign reserves, therefore seems to be the only solution.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Algerian army "invades Libya"

For the last two weeks we have been establishing whether or not Algerian troops have “invaded” Libya as was reported in the London Times on 30 May and in Algeria’s El Watan newspaper on 6 June. Last week, we said that we were “inclined to believe that that some, or even a large part, of these forces (5,000) have moved into Libya, possibly to secure a “cordon sanitaire” on the Libya side of the frontier by taking control of water holes and other strategic points, in order to ensure that there is no penetration of Libyan-based “terrorist” elements into Algeria.”

This week we received direct, personal confirmation from France’s former Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, that “the Algerian army has invaded Libya”. We have also received confirmation from other sources. Not only have these forces, believed to be at least 5,000 strong and backed up by air power, established, as we suggested last week, a “cordon sanitaire” on the Libyan side of the frontier, but it is widely believed that they have launched strikes deep into Libya against armed groups (generally referred to as “terrorists” or “jihadists”) that have set up base in southern Libya over the last year or so.

As the Algerian constitution prohibits its forces from taking part in military action outside its own territory, the government will almost certainly continue to deny that this operation is taking place, as it has done so far. For instance, on 10 June, Prime Minister Sellal told the Senate that the army will not undertake any operation outside Algerian territory, a principle, he said, that was enshrined in the constitution.

Besides the constitutional issue, many Algerians would find it totally unacceptable that its forces were engaged in concert with those of France and the US, especially in another Muslim country.

Thus, the longer the Libyan operation goes on, the more likely we are to hear the government talking about how Algeria’s borders are being threatened by terrorists and justifying troop movements and the like in the border areas. There have been several such articles in the Algerian media this week. For example, on 18 June it was reported that terrorists in Tunisia, Libya and Mali were trying to carry out attacks on Algeria. The Echorouk daily newspaper said that “The terrorist threat doesn’t stop planning attacks to sabotage Algeria’s security. To this end, Algeria, with its combined forces, expresses its determination to clean up its territory of terrorists.”

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya pushes ahead with plan for parliamentary elections

Somewhat incredibly Libya is still pushing ahead with its plan to hold elections for a new parliament on 25 June. Despite the upheaval and chaos, some Libyans seem to believe that electing a new ruling body at this time will work as a sort of panacea and provide the country with the opportunity for a new start.

Even General Khalifa Haftar, who is battling it out against militants in the east, declared this week that he would halt all fighting for one day on 25 June so that the polls can go ahead.

Yet such optimism may well be misplaced. It is true that electing a new parliament will refresh the political scene. It is also likely to result in the Islamists losing some of their grip on power. This week the campaign poster of a Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Ali Bouzakok, was torn down by angry crowds in Benghazi.

While the Islamists will not disappear from the scene completely, it seems almost certain, given the ongoing hostility towards them, that they will not be able to dominate the parliament in the way they have been able to dominate the Congress.

However, with the country so polarised and with the central authorities still lacking in any real power or authority, it is difficult to see how these elections will really alter the status quo. Furthermore, some of the thornier issues, such as whether or not to elect a new President directly or indirectly, still have to be thrashed out, meaning that the potential for further deadlock is still a reality.

Added to all this the fact that the number of voters who have registered for these elections is still so low; it is difficult to see how this new parliament will have any real legitimacy.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Sudan denies arming Libyan militants

Sudan has hit back at allegations that it is secretly arming militants in Libya. These allegations arose after Libyan National Army’s spokesman, Mohamed Hijazi, told the Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath television channel on 7 June that “a suspicious plane carrying weapons landed at the Mitiga air base” on 5 June.

Although Hijazi asserted that he did not want to accuse the government in Khartoum or the people of Sudan directly, he made it clear that this was where the suspicion lay. He also claimed that this was not the first time that weapons meant for Islamist militants had arrived in Libya in this way, and hinted that Sudan had previously sent several such cargoes without the knowledge of the Libyan authorities.

The LNA spokesman claimed that over the past three years the Mitiga airport which is one of the main bases for militant Islamist brigades operating in Tripoli, had received some 270 weapons cargos that were channelled to extremist elements. He claims, however, prompted an official in the Sudanese Presidency to publicly deny the accusations.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya's security crisis worries Cairo

Since the election, few incidents of violence have been reported although one attack points to a growing security concern for the government. On Sunday 1 June, the military’s official spokesman reported that an attack on an Egyptian patrol along its border with Libya had left six guards dead. The attack allegedly occurred as an act of retaliation for recent arrests made by Egyptian security forces on a group of smugglers operating along the border. The military’s statement claims that the attack was the work of the smugglers themselves, although social media sites linked to the militant group Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, which operates primarily out of its base in the Sinai Peninsula, have claimed to be responsible for the attack as well. We have increased our attention on Egypt’s western border because of the rising instability in Libya. It is notable that various figures from within Libya’s body politic have flown to Cairo looking for help to calm the situation and, as we note below, the situation is only likely to worsen in the short term.

It is clear that disorder in Libya, whose government has struggled to control Islamic militant groups operating inside its border and is currently embroiled in a new crisis, has become a security priority for Egypt in recent weeks. On Tuesday 20 May, the military announced that it had temporarily closed Egypt’s border to Libya following similar moves by both Algeria and Tunisia. Envoys of the Egyptian and Algerian governments recently met to co-ordinate security arrangements in light of the renewed hostilities in Libya. This may eventual pose complications to Egyptians working in Libya who, according to unofficial estimates of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, number over a million, although expatriates have not yet been asked to evacuate Libya.

It was reported on Monday 2 June that a Libyan delegation of four ministers aligned with General Khalifa Haftar’s (a.k.a. Khafter) forces who launched an offensive against Islamist militants in Benghazi, including its Minister of Foreign Affairs, arrived in Cairo on a two-day visit aimed at soliciting help from the Egyptian government. President-elect El-Sisi raised Libya on several occasions throughout his electoral campaign as an issue of immediate concern and has suggested that Egypt would intervene in the conflict if it needed to, although the scope and scale of potential intervention has never been made clear. These comments have been welcomed by some Libyans, including General Haftar, who essentially posed an invitation to Egypt to intervene militarily during an interview he gave to a well-read Egyptian newspaper. We are concerned that as the security situation in Libya deteriorates, Egypt may be pulled into the conflict, thereby adding another dimension to its current overall security risk.

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Debate over long overdue 2014 Budget postponed

The Congress put off discussing its long overdue budget for 2014 again this week. The budget was supposed to have been discussed during the Congress’s session on 11 May but, when it came to it, the budget law was not on the Congress agenda.

The ruling body gave no reason for the postponement and failed to specify a new date for discussions to take place. Congress sources did, however, tell the Libyan media that it had been shelved from the session on the 11 May because of security concerns.

Meanwhile, Congress member Abdelmonen Al-Yassir told a local satellite channel that the presidency of the Congress had informed members late on Saturday 10 May that there was a security risk which required the postponement of the session. While Al-Yassir stated that he did not know the nature of these risks, he hinted that it may be related to the ongoing controversy over the appointment of Ahmed Maitig as Prime Minister.

The draft budget is set at LD59,686 million (US$48,743 million) with a projected deficit of LD10,000 (US$8,166 million).

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Militants take over in Derna

Militants in Derna moved to further consolidate their control over the town this week. It was reported that the recently formed group, the Majlis Shura Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna (the Shura Council of the Youth of Islam in Derna) (See Libya Politics and Security – 07.04.14) had taken over the local council and turned it into a religious court. According to the Bawabat Al-Wasat news site the group’s members have brought religious judges over from Egypt to preside in the court.

Meanwhile this week militants, who are believed to be from the same organisation, erected a wall across the campus of Derna University to separate male and female students. It is becoming increasingly clear that Derna has slipped completely outside of state control and it is now entirely in the hands of militant Islamist elements who are currently able to run roughshod over the local population. 

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Jordanian Ambassador Fawaz Al-Aitan still held captive

Jordan’s ambassador to Libya, Fawaz Al-Aitan, who was kidnapped in Tripoli on 15 April, remains in captivity, despite talk of his imminent release.

Al-Aitan’s abductors demanded Jordan free Libyan militant prisoner, Mohamed Said Dersi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Jordan in 2007 for plotting to blow up a Jordanian airport. This demand reportedly came from Dersi’s family in Benghazi who allegedly appealed to militants in Tripoli to carry out the kidnapping to try to secure their son’s release.

Reports emerged this week that Dersi has now been released but they were quickly denied by the Libyan Foreign Affairs Ministry. The official LANA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Said Al-Aswad as saying that the ministry had no knowledge of Dersi’s being transported to Libya. A ministry spokesman also told the Jordan Times that the ministry had “no information confirming these reports”.

There are, however, plenty of credible sources who are insisting that Dersi has been freed. This week, his lawyer declared that the militant had been released from prison and that he had already returned to Tripoli. Similarly, the lawyer for many Islamist prisoners in Jordan, Mousa Abedlat, announced that the Jordanian authorities had deported Dersi to Tripoli at dawn on 25 April in return for the release of their ambassador. A Salafist jihadist leader in the south of Jordan, Mohamed Al-Chalabi (a.k.a. Abu Sayaf) also told the Al-Hayat newspaper this week, “Dersi is now asleep in Libya.”

If these reports are true, then it is not clear why Al-Aitan has yet to be freed.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Sixty Committee holds first meeting

Libya’s constitution committee held its first meeting on 21 April in the eastern town of Al-Bayda.
The committee elected a head, selecting well-known liberal Ali Tarhouni to lead the process, and chose Al-Jilani Abdelsalam Arhouma as his deputy. The committee also agreed to spend the coming days working out its by-laws.

Only 47 of the 60 members of the committee were present as the remaining 13 members still have to be elected. The Amazigh (Berbers) are continuing to boycott the committee and elections for the other 11 seats - which could not take place in February due to security issues -  have yet to be re-held.
The committee remains incomplete, creating serious difficulties for the process of writing the new constitution. As one former congress member explained,: “The elections have not been completed so anyone can challenge the work of the committee by filing a petition to the constitutional court.”

This aside, the committee only has 120 days to draw up the new constitution. Given the sensitivities over some of the issues that will need to be thrashed out - such as what political system the country should adopt; how far it should go with decentralisation; whether Islamic Sharia should be the sole source of legislation; and what status should be given the country’s ethnic minorities - it seems highly unlikely that the committee will be able to complete its work within that timeframe.

How this new constitution will sit with the ongoing transition process and new elections also has yet to be seen.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.
© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: New discoveries

The National Oil Company (NOC) reported two new discoveries this month. The first was announced by its Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) subsidiary and is in the Sirte basin, about 80 km southwest of the town of Marada. According to the NOC website, the company drilled the FF2-47 well to a total depth of 7,270 feet and tested oil from the Lidam formation.

The test flow rate was 1,900 b/d of 27o API oil. The exploration well was first drilled in 1971 but the results were not very encouraging and only 65 barrels of oil were recovered – which is why it was considered uncommercial at the time.

Meanwhile, a consortium comprising Algeria’s state-owned Sonatrach International (Sipex), Oil India, and the Indian Oil Corporation made the second discovery. The gas discovery was made at well C1-96/01 in contract area 95/96 in the Ghadames basin, 650 km southwest of Tripoli.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Notorious Islamist militant is killed in Derna

Ali Bin Tahar, also known as Al-Faar, and was one of the most feared Islamist militants operating in Derna, was killed this week.  Tahar was shot, reportedly receiving seven bullets to the body. He was also reportedly attacked with knives in an assault carried out in front of his brother.

Tahar was a notorious figure in Derna. He had led armed attacks on a Derna polling station during the elections for the constitution committee. He was also one of the leaders of the new militant group that announced itself in Derna last week. As Libya Politics & Security – 07.04.14 reported, a group calling itself the Majlis Shura  Shabab Al-Islam fi Derna (the Shura Council of the Youth of Islam in  Derna) announced its existence by staging a military parade in the  town and posting footage of it on the internet. This parade comprised at least 26 military vehicles and more than 120 armed elements.

It is unknown who was behind Tahar’s death. Some have speculated that he was killed by some of his fellow militants as a result of differences over money. Others are claiming that his killing might have been an act of revenge for the many executions and assassinations he has been responsible for. Either way, Tahar’s death prompted jubilation among ordinary residents in Derna who could not believe that he had actually gone.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.
© 2014 Menas Associates

Saadi Qadhafi extradited to Libya

Saadi Qadhafi, the third son of Libya’s deposed dictator Muammar Qadhafi, was extradited early today from neighbouring Niger back to Libya. According to a statement posted on the government’s official Facebook page, Saadi is currently being held in the high-security Hadaba Prison in Tripoli.

"The Libyan Government thanks the President of the Republic of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, we also thank the Niger Government and the people of Niger for their cooperation with the Libyan Government in pledging its commitment to the treatment of the accused on the principles of justice and international norms in dealing with prisoners. God save Libya.”

Unofficial pictures were also released by the government-backed militia holding the businessman and former professional footballer, allegedly showing Saadi dressed in a blue prison uniform having his head shaved. There is a high likelihood that he will face the death penalty.

Libya has been seeking his extradition since he fled to Niger in the wake of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted his father. Niamey had previously refused to hand over Saadi around the time of the first anniversary of the February uprising because they feared he would be executed if he returned to Libya. A government spokesperson for the Nigerien authorities, Marou Amadou, said that it would only extradite Saadi “to a government which has an independent and impartial justice system”.

Following this request from Tripoli, Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou said any extradition requests would be viewed on strict legal merits alone, without referring specifically to the Saadi case. He had originally been granted asylum in November 2011 on humanitarian grounds, shortly after Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with allegations of forcefully misappropriated property and armed intimidation when he was head of the Libyan Football Federation. As a member of the ICC, Niger was obliged to extradite Qadhafi.

Saadi’s extradition is a real coup for the Libyan authorities. He was one of the most hated figures in the Qadhafi regime and arguably the most disliked of all Qadhafi’s sons. He had a reputation for being exceptionally brutal and is remembered in Benghazi particularly for his bulldozing of the Al-Ahli SC (Benghazi) stadium in an act of revenge after his football team, Al-Ahli SC (Tripoli), lost to the opposing side.

There is likely to be ongoing jubilation in Libya at the news. Congress is congratulating the families of the martyrs and the revolutionaries and is thanking Niger. This will serve as a reminder to a deeply troubled country of why they launched the uprising in the first place. 

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Preliminary results of Constitution Committee elections

The preliminary results of the elections for the constitution committee, or Sixty Committee, which was established to draw up the country’s new constitution, were released this week. Although most of those elected are not well known, the initial results indicated that the liberal trend did well.

So far, only 47 out of the committee’s members have been declared because voting has yet to take place for the remaining 13 seats. Two of these seats remain empty because they were set aside for the country’s Amazigh (Berber) minority which boycotted the elections on the grounds that the Amazigh were under-represented in the committee and because they were given no guarantee that their rights would be protected in the new constitution. 

The other 11 seats remain unfilled because the elections to these posts could not go ahead on 20 February as a result of various security issues. Despite the fact that the Higher Election Commission announced that voting would take place for these seats six days later, similar disruptions and security violations occurred, meaning the re-runs did not go ahead.

In such circumstances it is difficult to see how this committee can start work. This means that the constitution writing process is likely to be delayed even further, suggesting that Congress’ Plan B for early elections will almost certainly have to be implemented, providing that the Congress itself lasts that long. 

Indeed, the head of the Higher Election Commission, Nouri Al-Abbar, who resigned this week (see below), informed the GNC that “in the best circumstances and even with the availability of logistical support, the earliest time that elections can be held is between 5 to 10 months”. Whether Libyans will agree to wait that long has yet to be seen.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Libya: Violence in Benghazi continues

It has been another week of violence in Benghazi with state forces clearly no closer to curbing the campaign of assassinations and attacks that have blighted the city for months. As the spokesperson of the Joint Security Chamber in Benghazi, Ibrahim Al-Sharaf, described, “the security situation in Benghazi is still tense… The assassinations are continuing.”

On 7 February the imam of the Al-Ansari mosque in the Hadaiq area, Sheikh Atif Al-Madouli, was shot dead by gunmen as he was returning from Asr prayers. Al-Madouli is believed to have worked for the external intelligence services under the former regime.

Meanwhile, there have been a series of explosions targeting civilian locations. On 5 February, a gunman threw a grenade into the playground of a private primary school in Benghazi’s Tabalino district. The attack occurred at around 11.00 when the school playground was full. Six children were injured in the attack.

Then, on 9 February, two bombs exploded at dawn in the city. One exploded at the Arous Al-Bahr (Bride of the Sea) restaurant on the corniche. It appears that bags full of explosives had been planted all around the restaurant and destroyed it completely. The other blast occurred in Ghazir Street and was the result of a booby trapped car. It is unclear who was behind these attacks, and why these particular targets were selected, but restaurants are often associated in the minds of Islamist militants as places of vice and decadence.

It was also reported that a booby trapped car was found on the same day behind the headquarters of the Special Forces in Benghazi. Security forces are reported to have discovered 350 kilos of TNT at the site.

These attacks were followed by another explosion at dawn on 10 February in a house in the Al-Laithi district. It is currently being reported that two people were killed in the blast but this explosion actually appears to have been the result of badly stored weapons and ammunition.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates