By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 19 November 2017:
Ageela Saleh has lashed out at Tobruk airport officials who this morning refused landing permission to a UN plane from Tripoli bringing 29 House of Representatives (HoR) members for a key debate.
The parliamentarians from the west had been on their way to attend an HoR session which was expected to discuss, and maybe even vote on, the results of the joint HoR and State Council drafting committee’s two meetings in Tunis last month. The debate was announced last Tuesday and was due to take place in the coming week.
Somebody at Tobruk airport denied the UN aircraft landing permission “on security grounds”. The aircraft was obliged to fly back to Trioli’s Mitiga airport.
A spokesman for the HoR president said Saleh had ordered an investigation into the incident which he condemned. He said legal proceedings would be taken against those responsible.
Similar incidents have occurred before, though on each occasion it was demonstrators that acted against UN flights which had already landed. Last November former UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler was prevented from leaving the airport for talks with the HoR.
This was a repeat of the treatment received by his predecessor Bernardino Leon who, after his UN plane had landed in March 2015, was unable to leave to airport for scheduled talks with Saleh.
