Appeals court tells CDA’s Tarhouni to stand aside

By Libya Herald reporter.

Tunis, 15 February 2016:

The president of the Constitutional Drafting Assembly, Ali Tarhouni, has lost the latest round in . . .[restrict]proceedings against him for having dual nationality, in this case American in addition to Libyan citizenship,

The appeals court in Beida, in an interim ruling, has said that he should suspend his position pending a final ruling on the complaint.

According to an official close to Tahouni, so far there has been no official notification from the court of its ruling and until there was there would be no action taken by Tarhouni. But “he may step aside and his deputy take over” when a formal letter did arrive, the official told the Libya Herald, pointing out that under the law setting up the CDA, there was no ban on CDA members or leading officials having a second passport.

The issue of leading public figures having dual nationality remains, however, a sensitive one in Libya although no one until now has been penalised for it. Former prime minister Ali Zeidan had dual nationality. [/restrict]