By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 22 March 2014:
The Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mongi Hamdi, today confirmed that a Tunisian . . .[restrict]diplomat in Libya had been abducted in Tripoli yesterday. Speaking on Tunisian radio station Shams FM he said that the diplomat’s car had been found empty.
The Tunisian Interior Ministry named the abductee as Mohamed Cheikh Rouhou.
A source close at Tripoli Security Directorate had earlier told the Libya Herald that the embassy had reported a kidnapping last night.
The directorate had been given very few details about the incident, the source said, and the case had been handed over to the the capital’s Diplomatic Police department.
The case has caused concern and mystery in Tunis and in diplomatic circles in Tripoli. No group has claimed responsibility or demanded a ransom.
It is the first time ever that a Tunisian diplomat has been kidnapped anywhere. There have been suggestions, however, that the move may be linked to Tunisia’s war against its own Ansar Al-Sharia which has connections to Ansar in Libya.
In January, five Egyptian diploats wet kidnapped after a member of the Libya Revolutionaries Operations Room was detained in Egypt. They were later freed when he was arrested. There has been virtually no Egyptian diplomatic presence in Libya since then.
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