Areej Haddad TRIPOLI — At a press conference Thursday evening, Justice Minister Salah Al-Marghani said a public prosecutor was being held illegally in Tripoli's Mitiga jail and likened those detaining him to Abdallah Senussi and Gaddafi's henchmen. The prosecutor, whom he did not name, is Taha Bara, former spokesman for the attorney general's office. He has been held, along with Khoms Congressman Akram Al-Janin and the Investment Undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil, since May 16, supposedly on suspicion of immoral activities including alcohol offenses. Pictures of the three men in detention have circulated on Facebook. Marghani's statement contradicts earlier reports that Bara had been released after alcohol tests on him proved negative. Marghani said that the aim of those holding him and the two others was to control and strike fear in the judiciary. He said that in Gaddaffi's time people such as Abdullah Senussi and his cohorts used their power in ways that caused the judiciary to fear them. It must not be allowed to happen again in the new Libya. In a separate protest against the detention of Janin, a group of Khoms thuwar stormed the local power station and seized five of the plant's technicians, forcing them to cut off electricity supplies to the south of Libya, as well as separate the east and west network power supplies. Khoms Local Council has already condemned the seizure of Janin, demanding his release and an explanation of the circumstances that led to his arrest. The minister, meanwhile, demanded that those responsible abide by the law and not repeat the past. They had exceeded their “accepted security duties, and interfered in the judiciary”, which they had no right to do. The detention of the prosecutor at the Mitiga jail, not under his ministry's control, was illegal, stated Marghani. Public prosecutors, he said, had special rights and their arrest required consent from the Supreme Judicial Council. Furthermore, all detentions over 48 hours required approval by the Supreme Judicial Council. In failing to request an arrest warrant, the group had taken the law into their own hands. — Libya Herald
