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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 20 October 2014:
The Constitutional Division of the Supreme Court has again postponed a ruling on the legitimacy . . .[restrict]of the House of Representatives’ meetings in Tobruk.
The court was originally supposed to have ruled on 8 October on the four separate cases brought against the HoR by former Congress leader Nuri Abu Sahmain and others but announced it was delaying its verdict until today, ostensibly so that it could merge all four as a single case. In reality, however, it was a delaying tactic to deal with that fact that, with Libya Dawn forces sitting outside the building, the court was unable to act independently.
The same situation has occurred again. Libya Dawn forces surrounded the court last night with the result that some judges did not turn up today and there was no formal session. Court officials now say that a ruling may be made on 5 November.
However, in a related move, the appeal courts in Benghazi, Beida and Jebel Akhdar have called for the case to be suspended until there is proper security in the country and the Supreme Court can function without duress.
The judicial authorities in the courts, in a statement issued in Beida yesterday, said that if the case were not suspended, they would ask all the courts in the country to stop work.
It was illegal for armed protestors to demonstrate outside the courts, they stated, and judges had the right to suspend sittings if there were any protests outside their courts. [/restrict]
