By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 23 June 2014:
The head of state television channel Al-Wataniya was interrogated for several hours this afternoon after . . .[restrict]being taken from his office by six men.
Executive Manager Tariq Al-Huni was taken by the unarmed group, who entered the station’s Tripoli premises shortly after 12 pm, a source at Al-Wataniya told the Libya Herald.
Huni contacted the channel at around 4pm and said he had been released and was on his way back to the office, the source added.
“A while after they took him, he phoned us and told us he was okay and but was being investigated,” he said. “Although they wore military uniforms, it was not clear to us who these people were and Huni said he would not respond under their interrogation but only to questioning by the General Prosecutor.”
The source said that, after the channel had released a statement about the incident, the men returned and said they were not a militia but were under the legitimacy of the Ministry of the Interior. They said they had “invited” Huni to go with them for questioning.
The reasons behind the arrest are not yet clear, but journalists working in Libya are increasingly being challenged and targeted. Last month two journalists were killed, including newspaper editor Mufta Awad Buzid, who was shot dead in Benghazi on 26 May. [/restrict]
