Tripoli, 22 October:
Money that was embezzled and smuggled out of the country will be returned once international legal proceedings are competed, . . .[restrict]Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur has said. In a speech on Wataniya TV this evening, Monday, he promised that the present government would continue to pursue the trail of looted funds, adding that he did not believe the quest would be affected by the change in government.
He was speaking in reponse to allegations that as much as $90 billion of public funds had been stolen over the years — and was still being stolen — and had been spirited out of the country to banks in Switzerland, the UK, Qatar and the UAE.
Last Thursday there was a demonstration outside the Libyan Broadcasting Office on Tripoli’s Shara Al-Shatt on, with protesters claiming that Wataniya TV had been pressurised into suppressing a video film containing details of the embezzlement.
Wataniya denied it.
This evening, Abushagur said neither he nor the government was aware of money being transferred to the UAE or Qatar. Pointing to their support for the revolution, he said that that if stolen money had gone to the two states, he was sure they would return it to Libya. [/restrict]
