By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 9 April 2015:
The Board of Management of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) has dismissed the CBL . . .[restrict]Governor Saddek Elkaber.
Elkaber is located in the historic headquarters of the CBL in Tripoli, a city that is under the control of the GNC-Libya Dawn coalition.
The decision to sack Elkaber was signed by Ali Salem Hibri, the Governor of the CBL located in the eastern city of Al-Beida, and representing the only internationally recognized government and parliament, the House of Representatives (HoR).
The decision (No. (14) of 2015) made yesterday, ‘’warned all banks and financial institutions operating in Libya or abroad from dealing with the former Governor in order to avoid any legal liability against violators, including internal departments of the Central Bank of Libya and its branches’’.
The first article of the decision stipulates the ‘’suspension and withdrawal of all of the powers and signatures authorized by law to former Governor Elkaber’’.
The decision also ‘’cancels the right of representation and membership granted to him in all banks and financial institutions, domestic and international, in which the Central Bank of Libya owns capital, or which it invests in its assets, or is a member of’’.
The decision is made by the internationally recognized legislative and executive authorities, forced to flee Tripoli in the summer of 2014 and seek refuge in eastern Libya by the GNC-Libya Dawn forces.
It comes on the heels of internationally recognized legislative and executive authorities’ decision to form its own National Oil Corporation (NOC) and attempt to divert oil revenues away from Tripoli.
The decision to attempt to break out of the current status quo in place since the summer of 2014, sees the eastern authorities attempting to force their international legitimacy into changing the reality on the ground.
Meanwhile, cat-and-mouse fighting with contradicting claims of progress from both sides, continues on the outskirts of southern Tripoli between the two conflicting coalitions while the UN-led peace talks in Morocco’s Skhirat are attempting to find a compromise unity government.
Meanwhile, to complicate matters further, it must be recalled that CBL Governor Elkaber had already been sacked by the HoR on 14 September 2014 after he had failed to turn up to Tobruk for questioning.
With the move to open a new NOC and divert oil revenues into a new bank account, and the sacking of Elkaber, it now remains to be seen how the international community reacts to these latest moves. [/restrict]
