By Hadi Fornaji.
Tripoli, 11 June:
The NTC has issued a new law to compensate former political prisoners of the Qaddafi regime. Under . . .[restrict]Law No. 50 anyone kept in prison or detention centres by the former regime between 1 September, 1968, the day that Qaddafi overthrew the monarchy and 12 February ,2011, will be entitled to LD 8,000 for every month they were held. There will be no distinction whether the prisoners were civilian or military. Common criminals will not be entitled to compensation.
The NTC has instructed the government to work out the details of the payment.
Mohammed Hareizi told Libya Herald that the compensation would also be paid to the families of political prisoners who had since died, whether in prison or after they had been released.
The decision is expected to cost the country billions. The number of political prisoners ran into thousands, some of whom spent decades in jail. Ahmed Zubair Senussi for example, who now leads the self-proclaimed Cyrenaica Transitional Council, was imprisoned for 31 years and will be entitled to almost LD 3 million.
It has not been disclosed if the NTC discussed the idea with the government or the central bank beforehand. The NTC’s February decision to pay last year’s revolutionaries LD 4,000 if married or LD 2,400 if single came as a bombshell to the Central Bank. It also ended up costing billions when the false claims pilled in and were then paid out. At least it will be easier to decide who is entitled to the LD 8,000 a month prisoner payments. There are records of who was in jail during the Qaddafi years.
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