The House of Representatives (HoR) will send a committee to Belgium to follow up the case of “disappearing” Libyan frozen assets from a Belgium Bank, HoR member Abdel Salam Nasiah said Tuesday.
Nasiah said on Twitter the committee includes Chairman of the financial committee of the Tobruk-based HoR Omar Tantoush, a member of the parliamentary Financial Committee and chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee.
A U.N. report revealed in September that a bank in Belgium, reportedly holding more than $20 billion of the frozen funds as part of sanctions against the late Muammar Gaddafi’s inner circle, transferred dividends and interests to accounts controlled by the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), affiliated to the interim government in Benghazi, outside of the country.
U.N. officials said that was a breach of the global sanctions regime and “could lead to the misuse and misappropriation of funds” because of ongoing instability in Libya.
Earlier, the LIA refuted media reports that some of Libya’s frozen assets in Belgium have vanished, labeling the reports as “allegations.”
In November, the LIA called on the Attorney-General to open an investigation into leaked information about the claimed transfer of funds from the LIA’s bank accounts in Belgium to “unknown” accounts.
The LIA in Benghazi demanded that the Attorney-General contacts his Belgian counterpart to uncover the “systematic” looting of Libyan assets.
However, the Tripoli-based LIA said in a statement there is no evidence supporting the claim that frozen assets in Belgium disappeared, adding that the latest report of the U.N. panel of experts on Libya did not mention such violation.
