Archive: libya

28th September 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
Photograph of the abducted men posted on Facebook    The Libyan militia that abducted 12 allegedly gay men at a party in Tripoli last week is planning to hand them over to the Ministry of Justice, the Libya Herald reports, allaying earlier fears that the men would be killed. A vigilante group… Read more
26th September 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
A vigilante group calling itself the Private Deterrent Force claims to have seized 12 gay men in Libya and is reportedly threatening to kill them. A photograph (above) posted on the group's Facebook page shows the men with their heads covered and their hands up, facing a wall. A note with the… Read more
21st September 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
There was a flurry of media interest earlier this year over women's participation in the Libyan elections. In May, Najat Kikhia, who teaches statistics at Benghazi University, became the only female member of the city's council and the first woman elected to public office. She secured more votes… Read more
30th April 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
Shokri Ghanem, the man in charge of Libya's highly corrupt oil industry during the last five years of Gaddafi's rule, was found dead yesterday – floating in the river Danube near his home in Vienna. His family have suggested that he fell in the river after suffering a heart attack, though foul… Read more
28th April 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
Libya's largest oil refinery, in Ras Lanuf, has been closed since the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi and will remain closed for at least another month while the company that operates it is restructured, the Tripoli Post reports. Behind this rather bland announcement is a controversy that has been… Read more
10th March 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
At a court case in Britain on Friday, the Libyan government won possession of a $16 million house said to belong to Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saadi. The luxurious London property (shown here, inside and out, in a set of photographs on the Telegraph's website), was acquired in 2009 by Capitana Seas… Read more
9th February 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
You may have been wondering what happened to Lizzie Phelan, the British "independent journalist" who reported Colonel Gaddafi's numerous successes against the rebels in Libya last year. Well, the fall of Gaddafi didn't bring an end to her endeavours. Last month she re-surfaced in Syria, once again… Read more
17th December 2011
By: Brian Whitaker
Tracking down the ill-gotten gains of fallen dictators is rarely an easy task but there are hopes that a luxurious property in London, thought to be worth around $16 million, may provide a breakthrough in the case of the Gaddafi family. Libya's new government is seeking legal ownership of the house… Read more
20th August 2011
By: Brian Whitaker
This week the Libyan National Transitional Council issued its "Draft Constitutional Charter" – a sort of provisional constitution for the country in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Gaddafi. The Project on Middle East Democracy lists some of its specific provisions here, but a more revealing… Read more
2nd June 2011
By: Brian Whitaker
The revelation that "retired" soldiers are operating in Libya with the blessing of Nato countries, under the guise of working for private security companies, has sparked new debate about the use of ground forces there. This raises two separate issues – one legal, the other political. Politically,… Read more