By Libya Herald staff.
Benghazi, 25 January 2015:
Mystery surrounds the abduction early this morning of the Deputy Foreign Minister in the Thinni . . .[restrict]government, Hassan Saghir. He was seized from his hotel in Beida and, according to some reports, has since been freed. However this has not been confirmed. The reasons for the incident are unclear.
According to staff at the Marhaba Hotel where he has been staying, three armed men in plain clothes but claiming to be policemen arrived at around 2:30 am, said they had orders to arrest him and forced their way into his room. The staff were also reported saying that before he was taken away he was beaten in his room by the men.
The Security Directorate in Beida, however, said that they never sent anyone to the hotel and that there was no arrest order.
It is now claimed that those responsible were from the military police but this too has not been confirmed.
The incident is bound to raise questions about the government staying in Beida. It went there because it was considered safe. Last week, Ansar Al-Sharia claimed it had set up a Shoura Council of Revolutionaries in Beida, which is also the seat of the Constitutional Drafting Assembly. It did so, it said, because of “a wave of kidnappings, assassinations, theft of public money and the return of former regime figures” in the town.
There have been a small number of bombings attacks in Beida in recent months, but all have been blamed on Ansar and its allies. However, the town is otherwise quiet and local residents are strongly supportive of the House of Representatives and the Thinni government. [/restrict]
