Anoud al-Senussi was abducted by unknown assailants at approximately 5:00 pm on 2 September outside Al-Baraka prison, formerly known as al-Ruwaimi prison, as the judicial police escorted her to Tripoli International Airport. Upon her release – which the authorities had been delaying since 8 August out of fears for her security – she had planned to meet relatives before flying out to Sabha in southern Libya.

“Anoud’s abduction casts a shadow on the Libyan authorities’ ability to ensure the safety of so many detainees held in relation to the 2011 armed conflict. They must now show that they have the political will and ability to tackle abuses by the militias and establish the rule of law, or the Libyan justice system will remain dysfunctional,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“How can the Libyan authorities claim that they are able to deliver fair trials, and apply the law in the most prominent, politically sensitive cases, when they are manifestly unable to ensure the basic safety of detainees?”

Upon Anoud’s release from Al-Baraka prison on Monday afternoon, the three-car judicial police convoy was ambushed by a group of masked men armed with heavy weapons. They allegedly shot in the air before abducting Anoud and driving off to an unknown location.

According to the Ministry of Justice, no one was injured in the attack. So far, the motives of the abduction and the identity of the perpetrators remain unknown. 

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, the Minister of Justice, Salah al-Marghani, announced that investigations were under way and appealed to all Libyans, including the “revolutionaries”, for help in finding Anoud al-Senussi.

“The Libyan authorities’ top priority must be to ensure that Anoud al-Senussi is freed unharmed without delay. They must carry out an independent and impartial investigation into her abduction and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

“This latest abduction and the ongoing lawlessness in the country if anything demonstrate the inability of the Libyan authorities to fairly try politically sensitive cases such as Abdallah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi and underscores the need to hand them over to the International Criminal Court.”

Due to the sensitivity of Anoud al-Senussi’s case, the authorities had been preparing her release procedures for several weeks, before the operation eventually went ahead yesterday afternoon. A previous release attempt was aborted on 26 August after a riot erupted in al-Baraka prison, where several hundreds detainees are held on charges related to the 2011 conflict.

The detainees protested against delays in referrals to the prosecution, and the judicial authorities’ inability to implement release orders.

‘Anoud Abdallah al-Senussi, aged 21, was arrested in October 2012 following her arrival in Tripoli from Algeria, and sentenced to 10 months in prison on charges of using a forged passport and entering Libya on a forged document.

She was intending to visit her father Abdallah al-Senussi, held in detention in Tripoli since 5 September 2012 despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for his arrest. The office of the General Prosecutor recently announced that national proceedings against Abdallah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi will begin on 19 September, in a move that defies the ICC and sets the authorities on course to conduct flawed trials that can result in the death penalty.

The judicial police was significantly weakened by the 2011 armed conflict. Hundreds of officers failed to report back to work, and the Ministry of Justice was forced to integrate some 10,000 former members of armed brigades that fought against al-Gaddafi, who lack the necessary training and experience to handle detainees. More resources need to be allocated to ensure the safety of detainees.

It is believed there are some 8,000 conflict-related detainees in Libya. Since the conflict, scores of detainees have been abducted by armed militias. In some cases, they have been tortured and summarily killed. These abductions are usually carried during transfers to courts or after release from prison – either as revenge for ordinary crimes or for acts allegedly committed on behalf of the former regime, or in some cases, for ransom. In some cases detainees have been abducted directly from prison.

“The Members of the Security Council expressed deep concern about the recent acts of violence in Benghazi which claimed lives of many people and called upon all Libyans to rally around their legitimate institutions, both civilian and military,” the 15-member Council said in a statement released to the press last night.

The Council also “encouraged all Libyans to engage with the political process of reconciliation and constitutional reform through peaceful and inclusive means, underpinned by respect for the rule of law.” The Members of the Security Council expressed deep concern about the recent acts of violence in Benghazi which claimed lives of many people and called upon all Libyans to rally around their legitimate institutions, both civilian and military.

The statement comes two days after Tarek Mitri, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya, briefed the members.

Mr. Mitri, who also heads the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), said that managing Libya’s democratic transition is bound to be difficult given the legacy of decades of brutal rule and that the country could benefit from a national political dialogue on the way forward.

Muammar al-Qaddafi ruled the North African country for more than 40 years until a pro-democracy uprising in 2011 – similar to the protests in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa – led to civil war and the end of his regime.

In today’s statement, the Security Council also called on Libyan authorities “to investigate all violations of human rights and bring the perpetrators of such acts to justice.”

They expressed serious concern about the continued arbitrary detentions without access to due process of thousands of persons held outside the authority of the state and called for their immediate release or transfer to detention centres under state authority.

The Members also condemned cases of torture and mistreatment observed in illegal detention centres in Libya, and emphasized that practices of torture and extra-judicial killing should not be tolerated.

Libya’s National Transitional Council, which has ruled the country since last year’s uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, on Wednesday handed power to the new assembly.

Megarief a former diplomat who had lived in exile since the 1980s and led the Libyan National Salvation Front, , won with 113 votes in the General National Congress against liberal independent Ali Zidane, who got 85.

Crowds in central Tripoli celebrated after the handover, which was the first peaceful transition of power in Libya’s modern history since Gaddafi’s 4 decade rule.

Magarief, will head the 200-member congress, which is tasked with will naming a prime minister and passing laws until full parliamentary elections can be held under a new constitution.

The assembly was also set to pick two deputies for Magarief, who had been seen as a leading contender for the top job.

The peaceful transition came as a car bomb exploded near the offices of the military police in Tripoli in the early hours Saturday, in the first such attack in the Libyan capital since the start of a revolt that toppled the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Several violent incidents have rocked Libya in recent days Libya but these have been mostly confined to the eastern part of the country and included offices of military intelligence and the assassination of a former senior military officer, according to Reuters. 

In the new assembly, 80 seats are held by parties. A liberal coalition led by wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril won 39 of those seats, while the Justice and Construction Party – the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood – won 17, according to Al Jazeera, while the remaining 120 seats are in the hands of independent candidates whose allegiances are hard to pin down.

The other half of the debt will be paid after a panel from Libya, will have to check for costings and invoices, in order to avoid over-charging speculations, he added.

Greek and Libyan authorities have been in negotiations for over two months about the payment of the unpaid amount, which covers the costs of hospitals, travel agencies, hotels and other services for the wounded flown to Greece.

“Overall we acknowledge debts of about 150 million to institutions: hotels, and the two travel agencies that cooperated in the program,” Libyana travel” and” Middle East”. Some 5,500 wounded were treated through this program. Today there are on Greek territory roughly between 350 and 500 injured and we are confident that the  funds will be released soon to pay off everyone. Initially, however,  50% of the debt will be paid, ” Libyan embassy charge d’affaires in Athens told ANA. 

In June, Alyunaniya’s correspondent had reported, that a group of around 25 Libyan nationals occupied the premises of the Libyan embassy in Athens, taking hostage a mission employee, in protest at the suspension of the healthcare they had been receiving from Greek private hospitals in recent months.

According to  sources, private Greek hospitals have refused to accept patients since last February due to a mounting unpaid bill by the Libyan government.

The problem began last November, when the new Libyan government took over responsibility for paying the hospital bills. Until then, the costs had been paid by Qatar.

The document, Mediapart reports, was given to it by former high officials from Libya a few days ago and offered solid evidence of “illegal campaign financing” allegations.

Sarkozy  denied accusations when first questioned by French journalists in March. Sarkozy’s campaign spokesperson Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet dismissed the latest report as “ridiculous” and a “clumsy diversion” staged by supporters of Francois Hollande, his Socialist opponent in the upcoming presidential election.

France has austere campaign financing laws, banning politicians from taking funding from foreign states.

The document dated December 10, 2006, written in Arabic, was signed by Gaddafi’s intelligence chief Moussa Koussa, in which he authorizes the Chief of Staff of Gaddafi, Saleh Bashir, to undertake secret payments.

The document also refers to a meeting that allegedly took place on June 6, 2006, between Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy’s close ally, and Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman who has been at the centre of a number of political scandals linked to Sarkozy and his inner circle, Aljazeera reported.

“The investigation will be difficult because many of those present were killed during the war in Libya, but it’s still important that this document should be made public,” Mediapart said citing Takieddine.

Sarkozy will be seeking re-election on May 6, going up against the Socialist candidate Francois Holland