Archive: libya

17th September 2022
By: Brian Whitaker
A man has been sentenced to death in Libya after converting from Islam to Christianity, according to local news reports.  Details are scarce, but Dhiaa al-Din Ahmed Miftah Balao – described as an information technology graduate – appears to have previously been a devoted Muslim and is said to have… Read more
25th April 2020
By: Brian Whitaker
So far, Libya has only 61 confirmed cases of Covid-19 but limited capacity for testing means an unknown number of infections are going undetected. At the same time, Libya faces a series of additional problems that make tackling the virus more difficult. The country is now in its ninth year of… Read more
19th October 2018
By: Brian Whitaker
A lobbyist who has received at least $120,000 for PR activities on behalf of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar is one of the scheduled speakers at a controversial meeting to be held in the House of Lords later this month. The meeting, billed as a discussion on postwar "reconstruction and… Read more
1st April 2016
By: Brian Whitaker
As efforts continue to establish a single national government in Libya, a report by a UN panel of experts which was circulated last month provides some illuminating background: Throughout most of 2015, conflicting regional interests further polarised the political scene. Support and statements by… Read more
4th September 2014
By: Brian Whitaker
Libya's Constitutional Drafting Assembly has set up an online poll asking people what system of government they would prefer – monarchical, presidential or parliamentary – and the results, if they reflect public opinion at all accurately, are rather alarming. With more than 23,000 votes cast so far… Read more
2nd August 2014
By: Brian Whitaker
The "bitter truth", according to a headline in the Daily Mail this week, is that Iraq and Libya "were better off under the tyrants toppled by an arrogant and naive west". In the article below, columnist Stephen Glover asked: "Where would you prefer to try to live a half-normal life – in Gaddafi’s… Read more
18th November 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
All militias from the Libyan city of Misrata have been told to leave the capital, Tripoli, within 72 hours, and "without exception", the BBC reports this morning. The Libya Herald says the withdrawal call came from members of Misrata’s shura council, local elders and commanders of the city’s… Read more
28th July 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
Graffiti outside Muslim Brotherhood building. Message says: "Go and take off your beard, you hypocrite. Fall Ikhwan!" Photo posted on Twitter. Protesters ransack the NFA's headquarters in Hay al-Andalus, Tripoli. Photo posted on Twitter.    “No group/party (revolutionary/not) no city (… Read more
13th May 2013
By: Brian Whitaker
Armed groups withdrew from Libya’s foreign and justice ministries at the weekend, ending a siege which lasted almost a fortnight, and bringing some respite – if only temporarily – in the country’s political crisis. An agreement to call off the siege came after the armed groupshad been confronted on… Read more
29th November 2012
By: Brian Whitaker
A Libyan militia is continuing to hold 12 allegedly gay men, despite saying it intends to hand them over to the Ministry of Justice. The 12 were seized at a party last Thursday by vigilantes from the Private Deterrent Force – part of the Nawasi Brigade which is Tripoli's largest Islamist militia. A… Read more