The Attorney General’s Office reported yesterday that its Public Prosecution has initiated criminal proceedings against the official of the Zuwara Coast Guard branch and ordered the detention of four members of the Coast Guard Force.
The Attorney-General’s Office said its Public Prosecutor examined the circumstances of the incident in which the employee of the Criminal Investigation Service branch was wounded by a live bullet at the time of the arrest of four individuals involved in organising illegal immigration operations working off the coast of Zuwara.
The investigator concluded that some members of the Coast Guard Branch planned to transport thirty-seven illegal immigrants to the northern Mediterranean by sea and that they deliberately fired gunshots at members of the Criminal Investigation Department in order to force them not to frustrate their plan to transport the immigrants.
When the investigator completed the interrogation of four defendants, it added, the Public Prosecutor ordered their pretrial detention, pending investigation. The Public Prosector also ordered the arrest of members of the security and military services engaged in the prohibited activity, and took measures to transfer migrants to non-custodial shelters until their situation was remedied.
