http://www.libyaherald.com/detained-icc-lawyer-will-be-free-if-she-divulges-location-of-saif-right-hand-man/
and meanwhile the internal strife and fighting continues......
Detained ICC lawyer “will be free” if she divulges location of Saif right hand man
By George Grant.
Tripoli, 12 June:
Mohammed Harizi believes Melinda Taylor knows the location of Saif Qaddafi's right hand man. Photo: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty
The NTC’s official spokesman has insisted that detained International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyer Melinda Taylor “will be free” if she divulges the location of Saif Qaddafi’s right-hand man, Mohammed Ismail.
In a remarkable exchange with ABC reporter Michael Vincent, Mohammed Harizi also claimed that Taylor was overheard telling Saif “you are not guilty” and was found to be in possession of GPS coordinates written by Ismail.
The authenticity of this claim has not been verified and it is also not clear to what location the alleged coordinates referred.
Prior to the revolution, Mohammed Ismail was one of Saif Qaddafi’s closest aides and a man known to have wielded considerable influence within the Qaddafi regime. Harizi has said that “it’s this man the Libyan government really wants”, and he believes Taylor knows where he is.
“She had papers from him”, Harizi said. “That means she saw him anywhere, I don’t know where. She saw him anywhere.
“We don’t have anything against this woman. We just we need some information from her. After that she will be free.”
Taylor is part of a four-person legal team appointed by the ICC to defend Saif Qaddafi. All four were arrested following Taylor’s meeting with Saif last Thursday.
Prior to the meeting, it is understood that the Zintan militia holding Saif insisted that an “old man” also be present in the room, a condition to which Taylor allegedly agreed.
What Taylor did not realise, according to Harizi, is that the old man understood English perfectly.
The arrest of Taylor and her companions has sparked international condemnation from a number of senior figures. Last Saturday, the president of the ICC, Sang-Hyun Song called on the Libyan authorities “to immediately take all necessary measures to ensure their safety and security and to liberate them”.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also called on the Libyan government to “expedite the end of Ms Taylor’s detention”. Taylor is an Australian national.
As representatives of the ICC, all four of the detained legal team have diplomatic immunity, which is intended to shield them from arrest or prosecution under a host country’s laws.
The team is currently being held in a prison in Zintan, and will be detained for 45 days whilst investigations are carried out, according Ajami al-Atiri, commander of the Zintan brigade.
and....
Zintan militiamen seize government cars in Tripoli
Tripoli, 12 June:
A group from one of the Zintan militias, Brigade 14, which was assigned to protect the Algerian-Libyan borders, seized a number government vehicles in Tripoli on Monday. These include cars belonging to the protocol department as well as police vehicles. The Zintanis say they have done so because of the government’s failure to settle their financial entitlements.
A Ministry of Interior source put the total number of cars held by the brigade at 33. He said that there are ongoing negotiations between brigade members, government officials and the army to facilitate the return of the vehicles.
They are being held at the brigade’s Tripoli quarters near the airport road. It is reported that they were seized after the group left the Algerian-Libyan border zone and headed for Tripoli to demand the money. They first went to the Ministry of Defence headquarters, then to the Prime Minister’s Office. When they did not receive what they considered a satisfactory response to their demands, they decided to take the law into their own hands.
and.....
Calls for SSC abolition
Fourteen political parties and civil society institutions in Benghazi have called for the abolition the Supreme Security Committee (SSC) and its members to be integrated into the police force.
The SSC was set up last September to re-establish law and order in the country at a time when in reality there were no police. It was initially headed by Ali Tarhouni. It was later incorporated into the Ministry of the Interior and presently acts in much the same capacity as the Civil Guard in Spain.
A statement signed by the 14 demanded the Interior Minister dissolve the SSC and to transfer its members into the police department with job grades and ranks in accordance with their qualifications. They also called for all SSC assets and properties to be transferred to the various national security institutions.
They want the police to be the main institution responsible for law and order in the country. They called for funds to be allocated to help it perform its works and, in particular, to be invested in police academies and training.
Among those who signed the demand are the Youth Revolution Committee, the Freedom Institute Against Financial And Administrative Corruption, We Are Here Libyan Foundation, 17 February Revolutionaries’ Union, the Democratic Party for Development and Prosperity, the General Police Federation, the Supreme Youth Council, the Women’s Union of Benghazi, Hands Together for Social Solidarity, the Libyan Justice and Constitution Party and the General Union of Civil Community Organisations.
Misrata faces petrol strike
Tripoli: 12 June:
Long lines appeared at petrol stations in Misrata this evening, Tuesday, after fuel tanks drivers started an indefinite strike.
The drivers, most of whom are independent deliverers, want a 60-percent rise in payment for deliveries. They are also demanding full payment of money owed to them for previous deliveries but which have been withheld.
The petrol tank drivers insist they will not take fuel into the city until their demands are met in full.
and....
Fighting in Mizdah; 19 dead.
Tripoli: 12 June:
Heavy fighting has been taking place all day, Tuesday, around the town of Mizdah between forces from Zintan and members of the Mashasha tribe. At least 19 people are reported to have died.
There has been growing hostility in recent months between the Zintanis who played a prominent role in last year’s revolution and the Mashasha who did not support it. Last December, there were clashes in which four people died.
The present fight started yesterday when the Mashasha stopped a Zintan military contingent heading to Sebha at a makeshift road block near Mizdah. In the ensuing conflict, one Zintani, who has been named as Muftah Ibrahim Al-Ramah, was shot dead and two others injured. They were taken to the local government hospital in Mizdah.
Both sides then started to gather their forces and look for allies. The Mizdah and the Al-Qantrar tribes came out in support of Zintan while Twarghans from Hun and elsewhere are said to have driven over to support the Mashasha .
In a last-minute attempt to avert clashes, a Zintani delegation went to negotiate with Mashasha elders this morning, demanding that Ramah’s body be handed over. The Mashasha refused. It is claimed that some Mashasha then went to the hospital and killed the two injured Zintanis,. However, there is no confirmation of this.
In the ensuing fighting in which both side used heavy weapons, it is reported that eight members of the Mashasha tribe, seven people from Zintan and two from Al-Qantrar were killed and 15 people wounded.
Mohamed Al-Sudani from the Mizdah hospital said that three bodies had been brought in and that three injured had been taken to Gharian hospital. An administrator at the latter, Omar Akiz, was reported by Reuters saying that two bodies had been brought in but that they had not been identified. “We have six injured”, he said.
and....
Terrorists strike in Misrata
By Michel Cousins.
Tripoli, 12 June:
Terrorists attacked the Red Cross offices in Misrata early this morning. A bomb, believed to be home-made, exploded at one the buildings in the Red Cross complex in the city at 3.50am. A young Libyan, the son of the owner of the complex, was wounded in the blast but his injuries were not thought to be serious. There were no other casualties. There was, however, material damage to the buildings.
This is the second attack on an office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the country in three weeks. On 22 May, the ICRC offices in Benghazi were damaged in a rocket-propelled grenade attack. Ten days later, a group calling itself the Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman Brigade claimed to have carried out the assault because, it said, the ICRC was distributing Bibles and trying to convert Libyans to Christianity.
The claims are seen as absurd by most Libyans and foreign observers alike.
Confirming today’s attack, Soaade Messoudi, the ICRC’s Communications Coordinator in Tripoli said that the organisation was “extremely concerned” about the latest incident. It had been in touch with the authorities who had visited the site in the morning.
She pointed out that the ICRC had been working in Libya since last year to address humanitarian issues and that it has been fully supported and approved by the Libyan authorities. It was, she said, “not involved in politics or religion”. It worked very closely with the Libyan Red Crescent and was the founding body of the worldwide Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. The fact that its emblem was a cross was irrelevant, she added. The organisation’s “emblems have no religious significance whatsoever”.
The reason the ICRC uses a red cross is because it started in Switzerland and the Red Cross symbol is a reverse image of the Swiss flag.
The so-called Omar Abdul Rahman Brigade, named after the blind Egyptian sheikh serving a life sentence in the US for the bomb attack on New York’s World Trade Center in 1993, has also claimed responsibility for the bomb attack at the US consulate in Benghazi a week ago.
There are, however, serious doubts to as to whether the brigade was involved in either of the attacks or even exists. When it claimed to have attacked the Red Cross building in Benghazi, it specifically denied that it had attacked the nearby Sahara bank which also suffered an RPG attack two hours later. Investigators believe both attack were carried out by the same people.
The concern now is that the Misrata blast is a copy cat attack by a separate group of militants and that there could be more elsewhere.
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