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Friday, October 11, 2013
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan was kidnapped on October 10 from a hotel in Tripoli that he calls home – The Corinthia – one of the country’s few luxury hotels and where industry professionals like to stay. The prime minister was seized by gunmen and reports have indicated that militias linked to two Libyan ministries were responsible, while other reports say his seizure looked more like an arrest.
Less than six hours after the first reports that he had been seized, Zidan appeared at government headquarters in Tripoli, having been released by the ‘kidnappers’.
There has been speculation that the abduction could have been in retaliation for the US special forces’ raid that seized a Libyan al Qaeda suspect from the streets of the capital, but Zidan after his release labeled it a symptom of “Libyan political rivalries.”
The abduction adds to the poor security picture that is currently Libya. Risk specialists AKE said “Whether it was a kidnap or an arrest by an armed group the incident demonstrates the inability of the central authorities to control autonomous armed militias in the country. These groups regularly conduct their own form of justice out with the official legal system.”
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