By Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 10 March 2015:
There are allegations today that Libya Dawn is tapping phone conversations following reports that a prominent Tarhouna elder . . .[restrict]was reportedly seized after making a call to General Khalifa Hafter.
Amaar Ehriba, an elder of Al-Furjan tribe, is said to have been arrested yesterday by an armed group and taken to an unknown destination.
“An armed group has kidnapped Sheikh Ammar nearby his house,” a Tarhouna resident told the Libya Herald. “The kidnapping came few hours after a phone call took place between Sheikh Amaar and Lieutenant General Khalifa Hafter congratulating him on his new assignment” he added.
The Furjan tribe is one of the largest in the Tarhouna area and Hafter’s family originally hails from it.
There have been regular accusations levelled at the Libya Dawn regime in Tripoli that is has engaged in phone tapping, but there has been no evidence. Nonetheless, fears that phone calls are being listened to and recorded have resulted in many residents in the capital and nearby towns reverting to the Qaddafi-era practice of avoiding any sensitive details in their phone conversations. [/restrict]
