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Tripoli, 24 March 2013:
Former Libyan ambassador to Egypt, Ali Marya, and Mohamed Ibrahim Mansour, who used to be a senior finance . . .[restrict]official, are to be extradited to Libya from Egypt, after their arrest on 19 March.
Marya and Mansour, who were arrested with Qaddafi’s cousin and close aide, Ahmed Qaddaf Al-Dam, are being detained by the Egyptian branch of Interpol. Once legal requirements have been met, the pair will be handed over to the Libyan judicial authorities, according to Libyan News Agency, LANA.
The Egyptian state prosecutor, Talaat Abdallah, has ordered Qaddaf Al-Dam, to be held for 30 days pending investigations into several charges against him, including allegedly opening fire on Egyptian police. The Egyptian news agency MENA reported that Egypt was still awaiting extradition papers for Qaddaf Al-Dam.
The move follows the signing of a legal and judicial memorandum of understanding between Egypt and Libya, guaranteeing fair trials to suspects extradited to Libya.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian media is linking the decision to arrest the three Qaddafi officials and the decision to extradite Marya and Mansour to Libya’s reported decision to invest $2 billion in Egypt’s economy and provide it with a million barrels of oil for refining in Egypt every month. Egypt is to be allowed to retain a proportion of the diesel for its own use.
News of the $2 billion investment, which is to be transferred to Egypt’s Central Bank, was reported today by Turkey’s Anadolu news agency. It said it had been informed by the Libyan ambassador in Cairo, Mohamed Fayez Jibril.
Egypt is dire need of foreign reserves. The are down from $36 billion before the revolution to less than $14 billion, weakening the Egyptian pound and raising costs of fuel, grain and other essential imports. [/restrict]
