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Benghazi, 19 December:
The military court in Benghazi has declared that it will no longer be responsible for the trial relating to the killing of Abdul Fatah Younis.
The decision was made public a short time ago today and it is not yet clear what lay behind the move.
Widespread criticism of the case has been voiced across many parts of Libya in the past week, with protesters of various hues questioning why former NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil was being questioned by the tribunal.
Jalil, who was head of the NTC at the time of Younis’s murder on 28 July 2011, has denied any wrongdoing and said the first he knew of the incident was when he was informed about it by third parties.
Mystery continues to surround the general’s death, although it is all-but confirmed that he was assassinated by somebody from amongst the revolutionaries he notionally led. For many years he was one of the most senior figures in the Qaddafi regime and was held responsible for much of the suppression of dissenters carried out in its name.
During his testimony last week, Jalil spoke of the deep mistrust that existed towards Younis amongst many revolutionaries, and the potential threats that were made against him.
“The revolutionaries were saying at the time that this man should not be allowed to share our victory with us, when he was the very man who ordered the security brigades, during the 1980s and 1990s, to crush us down”, Jalil said.
“The revolutionaries prevented him from entering their operations room, insisting that if he did so, he would have to take responsibility for what happened to him.”
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