Libya: HoR speaker accuses PC Head of connivance with protest attack on Parliament house

Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives Aqila Saleh has accused Muhamed Menfi, the Presidential Council’s Head, of having a role in the attack on the Parliament’s HQ in Tobruk last Friday, Libya Observer reports.

A nationwide protest swept through Libya last week calling for elections and replacement of current institutions and figures. The demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the House of Representatives (HoR) in Tobruk and burned it down.

Speaking to local TV Channel Libya Al-Mustaqbal, Aqila floated the accusation that Menfi played a role in one way or another through his brother Sami. The “truth will emerge” once the investigations completed, he said.

Parliament Spokesman Abdullah Bliheg on his part said some confidential documents were stolen during the attack on the legislature. He added that “protesters driven by suspicious parties that do not represent Tobruk” are the ones who burned the building and stole secret documents.

Saleh’s statements come amid increasing speculation that the Presidential Council (PC), a body with some executive powers, may issue a decree to dissolve the House of Representatives and the High Council of State and form a Cabinet to prepare for the elections.

The HoR Speaker slammed the PC positing that it is not for it to issue decrees with the force of law, but within the purview of an elected head of state, through the constitution, insisting that only the constitution and law grant the head of state the right to do so.”

“This is what they call the encounter of weapons… as the executive authority has the right to dissolve the parliament, the legislature also has the right to dissolve the government,” he added.

On Tuesday, the Presidential Council announced that it had drawn up a plan to break the country’s political deadlock by holding elections.

“In response to the legitimate calls of Libyans and in order to meet their demands for change, (…) the Presidential Council has prepared an action plan to get the country out of the political crisis,” it said in a statement.

Without revealing the contours of this action plan, the Presidential Council assured that it aimed to “preserve the unity of the country, avert the specter of war and division, limit foreign interference and push towards a national settlement.”