Tripoli, 23 March 2o13:
Reports in local media that a vehicle had run over three protestors in front of the Prime Minister’s offices have officially been denied. The government’s website states the vehicle only touched a protestor as it was exiting the premises. The vehicle in question was not carrying Prime Minister Ali Zeidan who, according to the post, had left before the incident.
One of the videos offered up as evidence to refute the allegations shows the lead car touching a man standing at the gates. From the footage, it is visible that only the hood of the vehicle comes into contact with the man’s hands.
The statement posted on 22 March, says as evidence from the recordings, the “person is fine” and the incident has done nothing more than “attempt to disrupt the work of the government and spread rumours”.
Upon hearing the news, Libya Herald asked a nearby resident if he had felt the commotion of the accident, he simply responded that it was “lies”, adding that the protestors had “taken it too far by reporting a fake accident”. The resident was noticeably irritated by the continued presence of the demonstrators.
On Thursday, the Libyan news agency, LANA, reported that three men in Bu Sleem hospital who said they had been protestors outside the Prime Minister’s office, claimed that Zeidan’s car had sped at them, hit them and that they had been seriously injured as a result.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s headquarters outside walls were vandalised with spray paint by a crowd demanding the advancement of the Political Isolation Law and removal of Zeidan.
The government has not announced plans to take action against those who graffitied the walls.
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