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Libyan arrest warrant listing 37 suspects ‘imprecise, incomplete’: RFI

The arrest warrants issued by the Libyan authorities against 37 people, mainly Chadian and Sudanese, over inciting chaos in Libya is “imprecise and incomplete,” as it mentioned individuals who do not live in Libya, the Radio France Internationale (RFI) said Friday.

Some of the 37 people are imprisoned abroad and others live in Paris, RFI added.

“Mahamat Nouri, the head of the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), a Chadian rebel movement based in Libya has been living in Paris for years. Further, Kingabé Ougouzeïmi of Tapol, vice-president of another rebellious movement, was put in the list although he affirmed that he has never crossed to Libyan lands,” the report continued.

Chadian rebel leader Timan Erdimi, listed in the warrant, previously lived in southern Libya, but he is currently based in Doha.

On 4 January, Libya’s Attorney General issued an arrest warrant that listed 37 names, including 31 non-Libyans made up of 23 Chadian and eight Sudanese opposition rebels based in Libya on charges of abduction for ransom, armed robberies in southern Libya and attacks on Libyan oil fields.

The six Libyans charged in the warrant include Abdul Hakim Belhadj, the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was allied to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and former self-proclaimed chief of the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) Ibrahim Jadran.

Ibrahim Jadhran is accused of launching an attack last June on the oil crescent and on Tamanhint airbase in southern Libya in May.

Meanwhile, three leaders of the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR), based mainly in Sabha in southern Libya, were arrested in Nigeria in November 2017 and then were moved to N’Djamena, Chad, where they are jailed.

Several Sudanese people on the list are also in prison in Sudan.

After the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, fighters from neighboring Chad and Sudan joined the ensuing turmoil. Competing Libyan armed factions frequently accuse each other of deploying mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa, according to Reuters.

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