By Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 9 March 2016:
Prominent Misratan politician Abdurrahman Sewehli has accused the two main Islamist TV channels in Tripoli, Al-Nabaa . . .[restrict]and Tanasuh, of inciting violence against him and his Union for the Homeland party. He has launched a formal complaint with the Public Prosecutor.
In a statement from his media office after his meeting with the prosecutor, Sewehli linked attacks on him that were broadcast by the two stations and a rocket attack on the party’s Tripoli headquarters just 24 hours later.
It occurred last Friday. The party office is behind the Royal Palace and across the road from the office of the Grand Mufti, Sadek Al-Ghariani.
Tanasuh TV is owned by Ghariani while Al-Nabaa allegedly belongs to Abdulhakim Belhaj.
Sewehli accused the two stations of a continuing campaign of sedition against him, stating that he had already warned them to end their bias and incitement to violence.
He also accused the Tripoli authorities remaining silent about Friday’s attack.
He added that he was taking legal action to encourage Libyans to use the courts to protect their rights and as their means of complaint.
Sewehli, who took part in the UN-brokered Libya Dialogue meetings as a representative of the General National Congress (GNC), has increasingly become a focus of the Tripoli hardliners’ anger.
Previously strongly opposed to the House of Representatives (despite also being elected as one it its members), he has broken with GNC president Nuri Abu Sahmain, accusing him of acting like a dictator and sabotaging the dialogue process. He himself has now joined moves to activate the State Council, proposed under the Libya Political Agreement.
It is believed to be this that has so enfuriated the Tripoli rejectionists centred round Abu Sahmain, Ghariani, Tripoli “prime minister” Khalifa Ghwell and a number of militia leaders.
Despite his previous opposition to the HoR, Sewehli has said that there have to be concessions for the sake of the country – a position he accepts is viewed as a betrayal by the hardliners. “But we see them as being in the interests of the nation and promoting national unity, stability and civil peace, and which are imperative if Libya to live in safety and peace”, he was reported saying last Friday. [/restrict]
