By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab.
Tripoli, 6 April 2014:
Hashem Bishr has condemned the incident on Friday when members of the . . .[restrict]Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade laid siege to the Prime Minister’s office. Four vehicles belonging to the army’s 127 Brigade were reported stolen during the two-hour siege.
The brigade is led by his former SSC colleague Haitham Tajouri, although he is believed not to have been present at the incident.
Speaking to the Libya Herald about the incident, Bishr said he condemned “any attack on government property”. He added that he had not been in contact with Tajouri recently.
The incident followed the attack early on Friday morning on the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade’s headquarters at an ostrich farm at Bir Ustamilad in south Tajoura. Forces from the Libyan Revolutionaries Operations Room supported by Tajoura Military Council moved in at about 6am and after clashes ejected the Tripoli Brigade from the farm and now control it.
Tajouri and Bishr have been seen as politically close. Bishr once described Tajouri as “Tripoli’s first revolutionary”.
The attack is itself seen as linked to the release of videos last week in which Nuri Abu Sahmain, the president of the General National Congress and creator of the LROR, is interviewed by a man widely believed to be Haitham Tajouri about his being taken in for questioning over the presence of two women in his house in January.
The videos and their release have damaged Abu Sahmain’s position and credibility, which is thought to have been the intention. Many Congressmen now say that Abu Sahmain cannot continue in office.
He, however, has made it clear that he has no intention of resigning, and is supported by the LROR and sympathisers in Congress who fear his departure would weaken their influence. [/restrict]
