By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 28 September 2016:
Mohamed Allagi, the human rights lawyer and former justice minister under the National Transitional Council, has flown to the UK with his wife and son to apply for political asylum.
Allagi, who heads the National Council for Civil Liberties and Human Rights (NCCLHR), has been under growing pressure since he applied to the courts three years ago to have the Political Isolation Law (PIL) declared unconstitutional. As a result he has been threatened and had to leave the country, moving from one capital to another.
According to friends he decided that he would be safer in Europe and chose to go to the UK.
“It is a very sad moment for Libya,” said businessman Husni Bey who accompanied Allagi and his family to Tunis airport to catch the flight to London.
The NCCLHR was established after the revolution in 2011 as an independent human rights and civil liberties watchdog. It was supposed to centrally funded but soon found the authorities refusing to give it any cash after it came out in opposition to the PIL.
Allagi also founded the Party of Free Libyans in 2012.
