Libya: HoR member kidnapped for criticizing Haftar allegedly killed

Libyan lawmaker kidnapped last month for criticizing east-based military commander, Khalifa Haftar, was allegedly killed by her abductors reportedly linked to the renegade military leader.

Siham Sirgiwa, a member of the Benghazi-based House of Representatives (HoR), has been unaccounted for since early July after she criticized in a TV interview Haftar’s ongoing offensive to take control of Tripoli.

Haftar launched the surprise offensive early April claiming the aim is to flash out terror groups and Muslim Brotherhood-linked members who, he said, control the Libyan capital.

Unidentified gunmen raided Siham Sirgiwa’s house, shot her husband and took her and her daughter away to an unknown destination.

Noman Benotman, head of the Quilliam Foundation in the oil-rich country, told a television station on Friday Sirgiwa was allegedly “killed since the first day of her abduction”.

The head of the counterterrorism NGO called on the UN envoy to the North African country Ghassan Salame to challenge the eastern government, the HoR and Haftar to provide information on the lawmaker’s whereabouts, the Libyan Express reported.

Libya has been without a central government since the fall and demise of the longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. UN-backed government, Government of National Accord (GNA), has been struggling to impose itself as it faces staunch opposition from the eastern government, backed by Haftar, Egypt and the UAE.