Libyan chief prosecutor orders jailing culture minister over corruption
A week after arresting the Libyan education minister, the general prosecutor issues an order to jail the culture minister for allegedly falsifying official documents.
Libya’s general prosecutor issued Wednesday an order to jail the country’s culture minister for four days pending an investigation into allegations of managerial and financial irregularities and forgery.
Mabrouka Othman, the culture minister, allegedly falsified official documents "in order to complicate the processes of review and oversight of public spending," according to a statement by General Prosecutor Al-Sediq al-Sour.
The alleged corruption involves maintenance contracts related to some of the ministry’s buildings, which were refurbished last year.
According to the statement, the minister misused public funds and forged official documents to conceal irregularities.
Othman, an academic with a degree in nuclear physics, was designated in March as part of the country's interim unity government.
This comes a week and a half after Moussa al-Megarief, the education minister, was arrested over a similar case.
Libya's Minister of Education, Moussa Al-Megarief, "Was placed in preventative detention pending an investigation into [possible] negligence," as written in a statement by the prosecution service. A number of other ministers have also been called for questioning, including the minister of planning.
Al-Megarief was arrested on December 20 as part of an inquiry into a lack of schoolbooks, the prosecution service said.
After nearly a decade of chaos and internal fighting, Libya's state institutions have been riddled with corruption.
While the North African country was supposed to hold a presidential election on December 25, the Libyan House of Representatives postponed the elections due to the “impossibility” of holding them to an unspecified date after hostile arguments over divisive candidates and a disputed legal framework.