Tripoli, 12 June 2104:
Libya’s Deputy Prime Minister, . . .[restrict]Sadiq Abdulkarim, is in living in Malta, according to The Times of Malta. He is under heavy armed protection on the island, the paper says.
Abdulkarim left Libya when former prime minister Ali Zeidan was sacked by the General National Congress on 11 March. He reportedly accompanied Zeidan on the same plane when the latter flew from Tripoli to Malta, staying a couple of hours there before flying on to Germany. It is not known if Abdulkarim carried on to Germany with Zeidan or stayed at that point in Malta.
Over the weekend, there was media speculation that Zeidan himself was living in Malta but the Maltese government has denied it.
At press conference on Tuesday, the newspaper reported, a Maltese government spokesman said a man seen under heavy escort in St Paul’s Bay was not Zeidan but would not give further details “because of national security”.
Abdulkarim, who escaped an assassination attempt in Tripoli in December, is still theoretically Deputy Prime Minister. He did not resign nor, unlike Zeidan, was dismissed by Congress. However, it is highly unlikely he would be allowed back into the government having fled the country and remained outside for the past three months.
With acknowledgements to The Times of Malta [/restrict]
