Zeidan apologizes for accusing Kuwafiyah residents of helping prison breakout

By Sami Zaptia.

Tripoli, 5 August 2013:

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan apologized and withdrew his accusation that local residents had participated in the mass breakout from the Kuwafiyah prison in Benghazi.

Speaking at today’s press conference, Zeidan admitted that he had been misinformed and that in fact the local residents had helped in supporting and guarding the Kuwafiyah prison.

The Prime Minister was referring to his statement at last week’s press conference in which he had wrongly accused the local residents of Kuwafiyah of having a hand in the prison’s mass breakout that took place in Benghazi on Saturday 27^th July in which 1,200 convicts escaped.

It is believed that only a minor number of prisoners have been captured or returned voluntarily.

The seriousness of the incident led to the government closing down the Libyan-Egyptian border crossing at Musaid in an attempt to prevent fugitives from escaping into Egypt. [/restrict]