By George Grant.
Tripoli, 4 December:
Unidentified assailants have kidnapped a prominent activist and academic from his home in Ain Zara.
Dr Hamid Al-Tubuly, . . .[restrict]a professor at Tripoli University’s medical school, was taken at gunpoint from his home this morning, in front of his wife and children.
“We don’t know who took him, where he is now or why”, said Hajer Sharif, Tubuly’s niece. “He has been active on Twitter, commenting on everything that has gone on, but he wasn’t criticising any one group or anything. If he was criticising anything it would be the security situation”.
The kidnap also prompted a statement from the office of National Congress President Mohamed Magarief:
“Dr Magarief condemns the kidnapping of Dr Hamid Al-Tubuly by unknown assailants in the early hours of the morning [and has] appealed to all security agencies in the country to take all necessary measures to ensure he is returned safe and sound”, the statement read.
Magarief went on to acknowledge that the kidnap came at a “dangerous stage of this country’s history”, and called on all Libyan citizens to play their part in helping to restore stability.
Hinting at the possibility that Tubuly’s activism may have played a part in explaining his kidnapping, Magarief also described him as “one of the most prominent activists on social networking sites during the Libyan revolution.”
Today’s kidnap comes less than one week after a ten-year old boy was abducted in Tuwabia by criminals who demanded a LD 500,000 ransom in exchange for his life. The kidnappers were apprehended on Saturday after the Crime Investigations Department traced one of the men back to his phone after he called to demand the money.
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