Seven years have passed since the General National Congress (GNC) has passed Ordinance No. 07 that paved the way for storming Bani Walid; an incident that many said helped derail February 17 revolution.
That Ordinance showed the real intentions of Islamist political parties who are allied with armed factions from Misrata city as it was passed with lack of a majority vote (only 60 GNC members voted for it, less than the legal quorum) and most of them were from Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Libya, Justice and Constitution Party as well as others like Abdelrahman Al-Sweihli, Salah Badi, Nouri Abu Sahmain and others.
Islamist Politicians’ Involvement
GNC had at the time the power to make decisions that preserve Libyans’ unity, but chose to make decisions for the benefit of Islmists and by the pressure of Misrata armed groups, which even at the time encircled the GNC headquarters and took the Ordinance by force.
Aside from the unlawful nature of the Ordinance 07, the GNC used its power to play the role of the defense and interior ministries by issuing a decision related to national security. Ordinance 07 paved the way for overlapping authorities and practices by the governments in Libya, keeping Libya in chaos on the political level up until today.
Legal Issues
Ordinance 07 of September 25, 2012 was to many legal experts a violation of all local laws and regulations; some even say it was a first in history since no country has taken such a decision before as to wage war on political thinkers for their different ideologies.
Other observers believe that GNC Ordinance 07 helped tear apart the Libyan well-knitted fabric, fueling tribal conflicts leading eventually to the destruction of people’s properties, looting their belongings and displacing them.
Also, the fault on that Ordinance 07 was that no list of names was made public as it only tasked the interior and defense ministries to arrest all those who kidnapped and tortured Omran Shaaban and his companions and bring all the fugitives to justice in 10 days, in addition to releasing all the captives in Bani Walid.
So far, the names have not been released and the judiciary has not been seen interfering in this case; on the contrary, many people field lawsuits against those who issued Ordinance 07 from the then GNC members.
