Tripoli, 21 January 2013:
It is still unclear how GNC President Mohamed Magarief and his party came to be left behind in Kufra . . .[restrict]by the government plane they had been expecting to fly them back to Tripoli.
Mohamed Ammari, the head of the GNC Committee for Transport and Communications said that the aircraft had taken off with the leader of the National Alliance Forces, Mahmoud Jibril and a group of other passengers.
He said the flight captain had apparently been informed that Magarief, along with other members of the GNC, would be spending an extra day in Kufra
Ammari said that he had asked the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport to open an investigation in the matter, and to summon the plane’s captain in order to determine what really happened.
The incident initially prompted an angry Facebook posting from a Benghazi congressman, Alaeddin Al Magarief, in which he accused Jibril of taking the plane. A few hours later he erased the post.
He replaced it with a message saying how he and his GNC colleagues had concluded flying visits to Ras Lanouf, Brega, Arqud, Ajdabiya, Awjila and Jalo, and Kufra, where they had taken part in a ceremony to mark those martyred in the Battle of Kufra.
He was then told that the GNC had sent an aircraft to carry the delegation back to the capital.
“An hour before going to the airport,” wrote Mgariaf, “we were surprised to hear that the pilot for the delegation had taken off without the members of the delegation. We were told they had boarded Dr. Mahmoud Jibril and others.”
He continued that there were many questions about the incident.
However he added: “I have decided to erase the post published on my page regarding this matter, because I believe that the incident requires explanation. This is what I seek by writing this explanatory statement. I also do not want to pre-empt or in any way affect the course of the investigation into this incident, which is now underway.”
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