{UAH} Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan kidnapped

:43

AFP

Family and friends of the former Libyan Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, say he has been kidnapped, and for eight days, no one has heard from him.

In 2013, Mr Zeidan was held briefly by a militia when he was still prime minister.

At that time, his relationship with several armed groups in Tripoli had deteriorated, because they felt he was trying to diminish their role in the city.

An eyewitness told the BBC that the militia responsible for Mr Zeidan's kidnapping this time around is the Tripoli Revolutionary Brigade, which is nominally controlled by the government in Tripoli.

Karam Khaled says he was travelling with Mr Zeidan on an official visit and were at a hotel secured by the presidential guard:

We tried to stop them from taking [Mr Zeidan] but there were too many of them.

It became clear that the presidential council is under this militia's control, and not the other way around.

They kidnapped Mr Zeidan, and our sources tell us he is being held in an abandoned building that used to be a hotel.

Ali Zeidan's daughter, Inas, told the BBC that the family is "very, very worried about his health", adding that Mr Zeidan has "health issues" and that his family is "trying to make sure he's getting his medication".

"We don't know how well he's doing," she told the BBC.

Staff at the hotel where Mr Zeidan was abducted have declined to speak to the BBC over secutiry fears.

Abdel Nabi Almawly, an MP from the Parliament based in East Libya, held a meeting with Mr. Zidan in Tripoli hours before he was abducted. When he spoke to me, Mr Almawly questioned the Libyan Prime Minister's handling of the matter:

How is there this silence over a former official who was a symbol of the state?

If there is a legal issue it should be dealt with through a warrant from the Prosecutor General's office, and there isn't one!"

The Prosecutor General's office would not comment when contacted by the BBC.

Mr Zeidan secretly left the country in 2014, shortly after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament, and after the prosecutor general issued an arrest warrant for alleged financial irregularities

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