By Muttaz Mohamed Ali.
Tripoli, 12 April 2014:
Two prisoners were killed last night at Ain Zara’s Ruwaimi jail in Tripoli after revolutionaries . . .[restrict] supporting prison guards opened fire during an attempted prison break.
Prison officer Kamal Bu Ruis told the Libya Herald that initial reports that the attempted mass-escape followed an attack from the outside were untrue. He said the fires and and fighting witnessed by residents near the prison were the result of “a well organised attempt to escape”.
“It seems it was planned for carefully,” he said. “The prisoners all moved at the same time, opening their cells, attacking guards with knives while others set fire to one prison building.”
He added that the incident took prison staff by surprise and the escape was only stopped when a revolutionary brigade stationed nearby intervened. It was during this intervention that the two prisoners, one a Libyan and the other a foreign national, were killed.
Ten prisoners managed a successful escape in Tripoli on Thursday when they were being transferred from Ruwaimi jail to the public prosecutor’s office. Gunmen intercepted the vehicles in the Tripoli district of Fallah and started shooting randomly at the judicial police in the convoy, allowing the prisoners to escape.
[/restrict]
