By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 13 December 2014:
A leading Sufi imam, Sheikh Tarek Abbas, has been freed after being held by kidnappers . . .[restrict]for just over five months.
Abbas was abducted in front of his home, near Abu Manjel mosque in the centre of Tripoli, shortly after Fajr prayers on 4 July.
His seizure was roundly condemned by the Scholars Association of Libya who protested the growing targeting of moderate clerics throughout the country.
At the end of last month, another influential imam and preacher and prominent member of the League of Libyan Ulema, Sheikh Mohamed Al-Jaafari , was also seized as he left his local mosque in the Tripoli suburb of Ain Zara after Isha (evening) prayers. Nothing has since been heard, publicly at least, of Jaafari’s whereabouts.
It is not clear how Abbas came to be released on Thursday nor of what happened to him during his kidnapping. Yesterday he went to his mosque for a reunion with worshippers.
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