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By Olfa Andolsi.
Tunis, 4 May 2017:
Staff at the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) in Tripoli demonstrated today in protest at the kidnapping of their director of banking operations, Fathi Al-Haji, by unidentified gunmen.
The CBL information office said Haji was seized on the 2 May in Tripoli, although no other details was released.
The parallel CBL in Beida has also issued a statement today condemning the kidnapping.
In its statement released two days ago, the Tripoli CBL expressed its support for Haji’s family and called on the authorities to take urgent steps to secure his safe release.
Kidnappings, generally for ransom, have become an unpleasant and common feature of life in the capital.
However the CBL has been a particular target for criminals. In June 2015 three investigators from the bank’s anti-money laundering department were seized while investigating an alleged multi-million dollar letter of credit fraud. They were released within 48 hours when angry CBL staff threatened a strike that would have shut down the whole banking system.
Only a week earlier the bank’s media chief Essam El-Oul had been abducted for a second time in a year. He was later freed but in neither case were any reasons given for his release.
