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By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 12 May 2013:
Staff at the Foreign and Justice Ministries went back to work today after almost a fortnight . . .[restrict]of being kept out of the buildings by armed militiamen. The latter had originally mounted the blockades in support of the Political Isolation Law.
The buildings were handed over this morning to a group comprising a number of Congress members and leaders of groups that had supported the militiamen. According to the spokesman of Supreme Security Committee, Murad Hamza, the group that “received” the Foreign Ministry included its Undersecretary, Abdul-Razaq Graid, two Congressmen and a members of the Political Isolation Law coordination group.
Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdulaziz and Justice Minister Salah Marghani resumed work following an agreement between Congress officials and the leaders of the gunmen had been reached, the spokesmen for the respective ministries told the Libya Herald.
The reason for the formal handover, according to the militiamen, was that they wanted to show that nothing had been damaged or stolen during the period they hold the offices. Officials confirmed that was the case.
“Nothing has been touched,” a member of staff at the foreign ministry this afternoon, noting that files and computers of had not been tampered with.
“We’ve started working normally,” he said.
A week ago, after the Political Isolation Law was passed, the gunmen had refused to end up their sieges insisting they would remain until the government of Ali Zeidan was removed and that they saw that those had been working there who they said had been Qaddafi-era officials were removed.
The continued blocade had resulted in Marghani saying that he would move the Justice Ministry elsewhere, even out of Tripoli.
Following large demonstrations in Friday against the sieges, the militiamen withdrew and on Saturday, the judicial police returned to guard the Ministry of Justice while army units and the police moved in to guard the Foreign Ministry. [/restrict]
