Tripoli, 4 September:
Staff charged with inspecting imported produce at the Food and Medicine Control Department in Benghazi held a protest on . . .[restrict]Sunday, demanding legal security cover.
Abdul Salam Almsheeti, head of the Administrative and Financial Affairs Department, said that some staff had been illegally detained and assaulted by customs officers when a shipment of rice from Russia was unloaded at Benghazi, having been denied entry at Misrata.
Many inspectors were also threatened by members of armed groups, Almsheeti added, stressing that this was a case of intervention by non-state militias into the department’s business.
The striking staff are refusing to carry out any of their duties other than the inspection of imported medicine and medical supplies.
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