The Libyan News Agency, affiliated with the Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba, announced in a statement that a security entity, unnamed, stormed its headquarters in Tripoli and seized it on Sunday.
Earlier reports from local sources indicated that the General Intelligence Agency in the capital, Tripoli, raided the Libyan News Agency and sealed off its main office with red wax.
The statement mentioned that the security entity raided the agency’s premises, seized it, locked its doors with red wax, and prevented employees from entering.
The statement called on the House of Representatives, the Presidential Council, and the Attorney General to intervene and put an end to this blatant attack.
It noted that this unprecedented action coincides with preparations to mark International Workers’ Day on May 1st and World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd, casting a heavy shadow on the morale of all employees of the Libyan News Agency.
Safety in Libya’s capital, Tripoli is continuously deteriorating, with threats of kidnapping and murder a daily occurrence for residents.
Over the years, kidnappings, arrests, and assassinations have increased substantially in western Libya. This is evident in the repeated statements of the Ministry of Interior, about the arrest of gangs and individuals involved in the kidnapping and extortion of expatriate workers.
In late October, the Head of the Zaher Al-Jabal Police Station, Abdel-Salam Abdullah Abdel-Nabi, was assassinated by unknown assailants. Just days before, a policeman was assassinated in the same city. Despite this happening in full view of everyone, those at the helm of power do not move a finger to identify the perpetrators. The security authorities do not move to arrest them, or announce their names.
In October, Salah Abdel-Salam, the former Executive Director of the Civil Society Commission of the Libyan Presidential Council, was kidnapped in central Tripoli.
The National Commission for Human Rights in Libya (NCHRL) said that there are reports of security forces being involved in the kidnapping of Abdel-Salam. There has been no contact with him since the incident, and the identity of the security agency that kidnapped him has not been established. So far, his fate remains unknown.
Libya ranked fourth in the Arab world, and twenty in the world, among the countries with the highest levels of organised crime, according to the report of the Global Initiative to Combat Crime (GLOBAL INITIATIVE).
