From Sky News, London, Friday, 20 January 2012
Sky’s foreign affairs correspondent Lisa Holland said: “My military sources in . . .[restrict]the capital Tripoli are telling me their fighters on the ground in Assabia … are telling them that Moussa Ibrahim, the former mouthpiece of the regime, has been arrested.
“We must treat this with caution at the moment as, as the military sources in Tripoli are saying, seeing is believing because there have been rumours in the past of the capture of all sorts of people.
“If it turns out to be true it would be almost the final piece in the Libya jigsaw.”
Fighters from the National Transitional Council have claimed on three previous occasions that Ibrahim had been captured, but each proved to be untrue.
He is one of the final members of Colonel Gaddafi’s inner circle whose whereabouts were unclear after the killing of the Libyan leader and the capture of his son Saif al Islam.
In recent weeks, rumours inside Libya had suggested that Ibrahim had fled over the border into neighbouring Niger, where another of Gaddafi’s sons, Saadi, has sought refuge.
Assabia, where Ibrahim was reportedly captured, is said by rival groups to still be under the control of pro-Gaddafi militias. There have been a number of clashes in the town, which is about 50 miles from Tripoli.
Ibrahim held the news conferences for journalists allowed into Libya as the government battled a popular uprising against Gaddafi’s rule.
Sky’s Lisa Holland said: “He would spout the government line and he would accompany us on trips into the field.
“He’s extremely loyal, he’s a relative of Colonel Gaddafi. He’s educated in Britain, he studied in north London and he speaks fluent English.
“He was loyal to the absolute end, he used to liken Colonel Gaddafi to an almost presidential-like figure, which to the outside world seemed absolutely ridiculous.”
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