The Office of the Attorney General’s Office announced last Friday (17 July) that its Public Prosecutor had ordered the pretrial detention of the Chairman of the National Centre for Plant Protection and Agricultural Quarantine, the Centre’s Director General, and the Head of the Agricultural Extension Office in Tripoli.
Their detention was related to charges of negligence in evaluating and monitoring agricultural pesticides, which allowed banned pesticides to circulate in the country.
The Attorney General’s Office reported that public proceedings were initiated against the accused due to their failure to properly perform their official duties and their negligence regarding the assessment of agricultural pesticides imported into the country, the inspection of storage facilities, and the monitoring of traders’ activities.
This negligence, it explained, allowed prohibited pesticides to enter the market.
An investigator—handling the case concerning the use of banned agricultural pesticides within the jurisdiction of the Tripoli Public Order Prosecution—confronted the three accused with the facts and legal charges against them and subsequently ordered their remand in custody pending investigation.
Public outcry over revelations of import of unhealthy agricultural pesticides
It will be recalled that there has been a public outcry over the revelation that unhealthy agricultural pesticides have been allowed into Libya for wide use by farmers.