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By Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 11 November 2015:
A civil society activist and journalist as well as the manager of the Waddan hotel were . . .[restrict]among the latest people to be kidnapped in Tripoli yesterday.
Moutaz Khraif, the head of the organisation “For the good we gathered” was seized in Dahra district just behind the Supreme Court while hotel manager Walid Tantush was seized when men stormed the iconic hotel.
In both cases the kidnappers were reported to have been masked. At least another two people area also said to have been abducted in during the day.
It is also reported that some five journalists were detained over the past couple of weeks.
It is not known who was responsible for the latest abductions although Rada (“deterrence”) forces, under the control of Abdul Raouf Kara, are being accused.
It is not the first time there have been allegations of them detaining individuals either opposed to Libya Dawn or not quite fitting in. One central Tripoli resident told the Libya Herald today that he had not left his home in a week, fearing arrest by Rada because he had been denounced by a third party as being opposed to the force’s activities.
Khraif was taken in the early afternoon from in front of his home. According to his mother, four masked men who arrived in a 4X4 vehicle, grabbed him and drive off.
Well known, thanks to his efforts trying to help families in need, his seizure has caused a storm of protest in Tripoli. The National Commission Human Rights in Libya has condemned it and called for his release along with that of Aimen Aburas, another journalist, who was kidnapped in Tripoli on 9 September.
By coincidence, the international NGO Reporters Without Borders issued its own condemnation of militia attacks on journalists today, although it did not mention Khraif.
“The Libyan state’s disintegration and the failure to punish those responsible for such crimes has created a climate of violence that is extremely dangerous for the right to information”, it said in its statement, adding that the militias were “uncontrollable”.
Militias, it noted, had been responsible for 31 attacks on Libyan journalists this year, adding “they do not hesitate to kidnap those who dare to report or criticise their abuses”.
There is still no news about Mohamed Al-Naili, a photographer working for the Chinese news agency Xinhua, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances on 29 October. [/restrict]
