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By Libya Herald reporter
Malta, 17 February 2015:
The House of Representatives (HoR) announced yesterday that it had removed the head of the . . .[restrict]intelligence service Salam Al-Hassi from his post.
There are conflicting reports as to whether a replacement had been appointed or not. Some media reports reported HoR spokesperson as saying a replacement had been appointed, without naming him.
The HoR Media Department on its Facebook page, however, reported that Hassi’s replacement will be elected at a later time by HoR members. The choice will be made from a list of those who put forward their names for the job. It reported that 48 out of 66 members voted to remove Al-Hassi at yesterday’s session.
The reasons given for Hassi’s removal were the murder of the 21 Egyptian workers by IS extremists in the city of Sirte, media sources reported.
The official HoR spokesperson, Faraj Abuhashim, however, told the media that Hassi was removed due to a number of negative points in the operation of the intelligence agency. He said that the HoR National Security Committee had recalled Hassi for questioning.
It referred its report to the House with a number of recommendations, which in turn, after studying the report, made its decision to dismiss him.
Al-Hassi was appointed to head Libya’s newly created post-Qaddafi intelligence agency in February 2012 by the NTC.
One of the units that was created within the agency was a ‘’counter terrorism/extremism’’ unit, sources told Libya Herald.
However, Al-Hassi was reported to have resigned back in June 2014. [/restrict]
