Mansour Says Lebanese Diplomat in Libya Following up Arrest of Interpreter
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said the Lebanese charge d’affaires in Libya was tasked with following up the arrest of Lebanese interpreter Helene Assaf along with three envoys from the International Criminal Court.
The charge d’affaires will provide us with the latest developments on the case, Mansour told MTV after a judicial source said on Monday that Libyan authorities put the four envoys in "preventive" detention in prison for 45 days while investigating an alleged threat to national security.
"A decision was made to put them in preventive detention for 45 days while investigations are conducted," an official in the attorney general's office told Agence France Presse.
Ajmi al-Atiri, head of the brigade in Zintan that detained the delegation after it visited Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, said: "They were transferred yesterday (Sunday) to a prison on the orders of the prosecutor general."
The four-member delegation has been held since Thursday in the western town after one of its lawyers, Melinda Taylor, was found carrying documents for Seif al-Islam that were considered a "threat to national security."
Taylor works with Xavier-Jean Keita, the defense counsel that the ICC appointed for Seif al-Islam.
The team was in Libya to help Seif choose a defense lawyer, and the court has said the visit was authorized by the country's chief prosecutors.
Ahmed Jehani, Libya's envoy to the ICC, has said that the Australian lawyer was caught "exchanging papers with the accused Seif al-Islam."
Jehani alleged that Taylor was carrying a pen camera and a letter from Mohammed Ismail, Seif's former right-hand man who is now on the run.
He said the letter contained drawings and symbols, a "code" that would be understood only by the sender and the intended recipient, Seif.
"According to Libyan law, it would be spying, communication with the enemy," the envoy said.
Jehani said that Taylor's interpreter Assaf, who has been working with the ICC since 2005, was considered an "accomplice."
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/43131 |