Tripoli, 25 September 2013:
The vehicle licensing authorities in Tripoli have announced that, contrary to widespread opinion that rules banning cars without . . .[restrict]registration plates or with tinted window are being totally flouted, it stopped 1,487 vehicles last Friday, Saturday and Sunday and impounded many of them. It says that the campaign against such vehicles is still underway and it will not allow any car on the streets with tinted windows or without plates.
Earlier this week, an announcement that the Interior Ministry had extended for another three months the deadline for vehicle owners to replace the word “Jamahiriya” with that of “Libya” on their licence plates was widely dismissed as meaningless given the many earlier deadlines announced. However, there were indications that things might be changing with the report that a Tripoli driver who had refused to remove the tinted film on his vehicle’s windows and then threatened the police with a gun was then forced to the ground and arrested.
Meanwhile, the customs authorities have announced that any imported vehicles that do not conform to safety specifications will be seized and owners fined if they then fail to make the necessary changes.
For its part the Interior Ministry has announced that any 4X4 vehicle caught in the desert without number plates will be seized. It also said that any vehicle discovered to have belonged to state institutions during the Qaddafi regime, with or without number plates, would be confiscated and driver/owner arrested.
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