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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 16 March 2015:
Hassi government Information Minister Ali Al-Huni was under investigation when he was . . .[restrict]kidnapped from his home last week, it has been revealed.
In a speech on Saturday the head of the antigovernment, Omer Al-Hassi, said a series of complaints had been lodged against Huni “regarding his recent actions”. Hassi said he had been personally involved with an official investigation into the rumours which had now been passed on to the Ministry of Justice in Tripoli.
“I met with the minister and asked him to prepare for trial. I asked him to prepare his defence,” Hassi said.
Despite the imminent case against Huni, Hassi said he deplored the actions of the armed group and demanded his minister’s immediate release. He added that, as far as he was concerned, the General National Congress, the Administrative Control Authority and the Attorney General’s office were the correct bodies to dispense justice.
“I personally reject this kind of bad action that was taken by the armed group and call it a complete crime,” Hassi said.
While the head of the antigovernment did not spell out why Huni was being investigated, it is understood accusations of corruption had been made against him.
The pro-Hassi government Libya Observer has reported that fiscal and administrative corruption cases have been bought against the Media Development Bureau and Libya Al-Ekhbareya Channel.
The online publication claimed the two organisations had embezzled funds of up to LD 54 million and said the money had been paid to them by the Zeidan government.
An armed group attacked the home of Ali Al-Huni on Thursday when he was taken hostage with a number of his dinner party guests, who were later released.
The armed group who detained him is said to be from a Mitiga-based militia.
In December last year Huni survived an assassination attempt in which one of his bodyguards was killed. He himself was shot in the leg. .
Huni’s appointment to the Hassi antigovernment last August was controversial in some quarters. Though low-profile since the revolution, Huni, who is a poet working in the Libyan dialect, is supposed in 2011 to have written poems praising Qaddafi and criticising the revolutionaries.
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