Tripoli – Libya’s Tripoli-based government on Monday condemned what it called “degrading” images circulating of an abducted member of the eastern-based parliament and urged an international investigation.
The North African country has been wracked by unrest since the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising.
It is split between the UN-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) in the capital Tripoli in the west, and a rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar that rules from Benghazi and Tobruk in the east.
Ibrahim el-Dirsi, a member of the Libyan House of Representatives, was kidnapped in May 2024 in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city which he represents.
Libya’s Al-Ahrar TV broadcast photos and a video showing Dirsi, apparently in a prison cell, wearing only shorts and chained with a padlock around his neck.
A leaked video showed an elected congressman Ibrahim Darsi missing since May 2024 naked, shackled, and begging for mercy in a secret prison in #Libya
The footage was real.
The response? A war of fakes to bury the real one.
Here’s how 🧵 pic.twitter.com/WHIXQdQZli
— Anas El Gomati (@AGomati) May 5, 2025
In a statement, Tripoli’s GNU said it “condemns in the strongest terms” the images on Monday showing Dirsi “in degrading, shocking and inhumane conditions of detention”.
AFP was not able to verify the authenticity of the images, which Al-Ahrar said were from May 2024.
The pro-Haftar Al-Masar TV channel reported lawmakers as saying the images were “fabricated” and “produced using artificial intelligence”.
The UN Support Mission in Libya had expressed “deep concern” after Dirsi’s abduction and urged “authorities to locate and secure his prompt release”.
In its statement, the Tripoli-based government called for “an independent and urgent international investigation to shed light on the circumstances of this crime”.
It criticised the “so-called General Command”, referring to Haftar’s forces, after the video appeared to show Dirsi “asking them to forgive him”.
The eastern-based interior ministry said in a statement that the lawmaker had been kidnapped by “unidentified criminals affiliated with a gang” that is the subject of a “thorough investigation by the authorities”.
In 2019, Siham Sergewa, another representative in Benghazi, was abducted from her home shortly after criticising Haftar on a television broadcast and remains missing.
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Source: AFP
