Ex-NTC chief grilled over Libya killing

Abdel Jalil headed the National Transitional Council during the uprising against Gaddafi

Πηγή: AlJazeera
Dec 12 2012

Mustafa Abdel Jalil accused of abusing power after being questioned over death of general during anti-Gaddafi uprising.

Libyan military prosecutors have accused ex-leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil of abusing his power, after grilling him over the death of a general who led rebels during last year's uprising, a prosecution official said.

"Mustafa Abdel Jalil was accused of abuse of power and undermining national unity," by military prosecutors who questioned him in the eastern town of Marj over the 2011 assassination of Abdel Fatah Yunes, Majdi al-Baraasi told AFP news agency.

Abdel Jalil was chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), a political body representing the rebels during the uprising, which ended in the ouster and death of Muammer Gaddafi.

Prosecutors allowed him to to "go free on bail but a travel ban was issued against him until he appears before a military court in Benghazi on February 20," added Baraasi, who took part in the interrogation.

They have also summoned for questioning Mahmud Jibril, who was the head of the NTC's executive committee at the time and who played a critical role in winning international support for the Libyan revolution, the same source said.

Jibril now leads a liberal coalition of political parties.

Yunes' assassination

General Yunes, the highest-ranking military figure to join the uprising last year, was killed in July 2011 in murky circumstances after being recalled from the front line for questioning.

Abdel Jalil announced Yunes's death on July 29, 2011, saying that he had been shot and killed by an armed group as he was brought in to be questioned by a panel of judges over the military situation.

His burned and bullet-ridden body was found on the outskirts of Benghazi.

Abdel Fatah Yunes, head of the Libyan rebel forces, was killed in July 2011 in murky circumstances [AFP]

Members of the powerful Al-Obeidi tribe to which the general belonged warned last month that they would take justice into their own hands if the country's new authorities continued to "neglect the case".

They openly accuse Abdel Jalil of playing a role in the assassination.

Recently, Yunes' family's lawyer Youssef Aguila told AFP that Abdel Jalil could be accused of "inciting murder" because "he was responsible for the political phase (leading to the fall of the Gaddafi regime.)"

At least 13 people have been formally accused of involvement in the affair, including Judge Jumaa al-Jazwi, who signed the order to arrest Yunes.

Jazwi was himself assassinated in June this year.

Yunes played an key role in last year's liberation of Benghazi, the cradle of the anti-Gaddafi revolution, where he brokered a ceasefire at a besieged military base in the centre of the city, permitting loyalists to flee.

But despite his early defection, many rebels put little faith in the general, who was part of the circle of officers that helped bring Gaddafi to power in a 1969 bloodless coup.

Abdel Jalil, 60, was justice minister until his defection in February 2011.

Editor's note: You might like to read General's Abdul Fatah Youni assassination mystery

Libya judge who ordered arrest of ex-army chief killed: son

Abdul Fatah Younis was murdered under mysterious circumstances in late July and his body was found burned.

Πηγή: The Daily Star
June 21 2012

Benghazi, Libya: Libyan judge Jumaa Hassan al-Jazwi, who ordered the arrest of Moamer Kadhafi's ex-interior minister after he defected to lead rebels last year and died in mysterious circumstances, was murdered on Thursday, his son said.

"My father was killed on his way to evening prayers in the mosque of Shaheed Ahmed Sharif," in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the revolt that toppled Kadhafi's regime, said Ali al-Jazwi.

An official at the Benghazi Medical Centre confirmed the death, saying the corpse had been delivered with "signs of a bullet entering from his right side and exiting through the left."

Jazwi was said to have signed the arrest order for General Abdel Fatah Yunes, who was summoned for questioning from the front line in the city of Brega last July. The general is believed to have been killed on his way to Benghazi.

Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said afterwards that Yunes was killed by an armed group on his way to questioning in Benghazi.

Yunes was part of the group that helped bring Kadhafi to power in 1969.

He defected in February 2011 to join the popular uprising that escalated into a NATO-backed rebel insurgency that led to Kadhafi's ouster and death.

Editor's note: 

For more on Yunes' assassination see  General's Abdul Fatah Youni assassination mystery.

General's Abdul Fatah Youni assassination mystery

On July 24 the Jordan based Al - Bawaba media reported that General Abdul Fatah Younis "head of the rebel forces army in Libya, was killed in the fighting in Brega area some 10 days ago in what was described as mysterious circumstances." "It is worth mentioning that there were differences between some rebel leaders and Younes as some rebels claimed he was responsible for killing and injuring hundreds of people in front of Italy's consulate in Benghazi in 2006. This incident was related to a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed." Next day he gave a radio interview to announce he was alive and well and declare that the rebels would achieve victory before the impending start of Ramadan. TNC officials claimed afterwards that someone was impersonating Gen Younes, who was indeed under arrest. He accused Gaddafi regime of distributing this false information in order to influence the morale of the rebels.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil

On July 28 General Abdul Fatah Younis reported that was killed along with his comrades Colonel Mohammed Khamis and Major Nasser Mathkour. National Transitional Council (TNC), the opposition's administration based in Benghazi chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil said in the subsequent press conference that Libyan state TV had announced to its listeners that they would “hear good news about Abdul Fatah Younis this week.” As for the assassination he remarked: "Today, we learned that Major General Abdel Fattah Younes Faraj and his two companions were shot by gunmen after he was summoned to appear before a judicial committee to investigate military affairs. But the deceased did not appear before this committee, because of the procedures that happened to him, which are under investigation. The head of the armed group, one of them that actually carried out the assassination, was arrested." He gave a last warning "to the individuals who are armed inside the cities, we will not allow armed militias within the city limits. They have one of two choices: They have to join the front, or they have to join the national security forces inside the cities" and exteneded condolences "to all the Libyans and all the tribes, especially the tribe of Obeidat that have paid heavily with more than 40 martyrs and in excess of 500 injured at the front" adding that "these events will not turn the Obeidat tribe away from the revolution. Relatives of the dead, relatives of the martyrs and some of these tribes are here, and we all ask the Allah the almighty to give his mercy upon all of them.."


The TNC claimed that Major-General Abdel Fatah Younes had been shot by pro-Gaddafi forces. But this was immediately dismissed by supporters of the commander, who claimed he had been killed by fellow revolutionary fighters. Roadblocks were being set up in Benghazi after units loyal to Gen Younes were reported to have left the front line at the port of Brega and entered the opposition capital. The roads to the commander's home were sealed off by the Shabaab, volunteer militia fighters formed after the uprising. Later in the evening, gunmen burst into a hall where the head of the TNC, Mustafa Abdul Jalil had announced Gen Younes's death, and sprayed the room with rifle fire. A witness said that they later managed to enter the hotel with their weapons but security forces calmed them down and convinced them to leave. “They shouted ‘You killed him,’” in reference to the NTC, he added.

Ali Tarhouni

After 24 hours of confusion, rebel minister Ali Tarhouni said Younes had been killed by fighters who were sent to fetch him from the front and his bullet-riddled and partially burned body was found at a ranch near the rebel capital of Benghazi. Tarhouni said late on Friday a militiaman had been arrested and confessed that his subordinates had carried out the killing. He announced that the assassination of Gen Younes had been conducted by "renegade" members of the Abu Obeida al-Jarrah brigade which had taken Gen Younes into custody on suspicion of treason. Younes had been recalled over suspicions he or his family were secretly in contact with the Libyan leader.

Gaddafi's government pointed the finger at Fawzi Bu Kitf, head of the Union of Revolutionary Forces, a federation of armed rebel groups operating in the east of the country. In an apparent effort to distance himself from the killing, Bu Kitf on Saturday named the key suspect as Mustafa al-Rubh, the field commander who had been dispatched to arrest Younes.

On 30/7 Al - Jazeera reported that Younis was shot dead "after he had been held and questioned by their investigators regarding "a military matter", the head of the council says." Jalil claimed that since the throats of the men had not been cut the killing was not the work of Islamists but of pro - Qaddafi agents seeking to create divisions within the opposition. There was a warrant signed by Ali Essawi, his deputy, and that after Abdel Fattah Younes, the commander of the rebel armed forces, had been questioned on Thursday he had been released.

Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters. that behind this act it was al-Qaeda that wanted to mark out its presence and its influence in this region. Mohammed Agoury, a member of the rebel special forces, told the AP news agency that he was present when a group of rebels from the February 17th Brigade came to Younes' operations room before dawn on Wednesday and took him away for interrogation.

Abdul Fatah Younis was a senior military officer in Libya. He held the rank of Major General and the post of Minister of Interior, considered as a key supporter of Muammar al-Gaddafi or even No. 2 in the Libyan government. He had arrived in Benghazi commanding a special forces unit whose mission was to help relieve the beseiged Katiba compound, which had sheltered the remaining loyalist forces in the city since 18 February, and which was undergoing almost continuous attack. He claimed to have ordered his soldiers not to shoot at protesters, and negotiated an arrangement whereby the loyalists were permitted to retreat from the building and the city. Reading his short speech from a paper he resigned on camera on 22 February 2011 to defect to the rebel side.

Col Khalifa Haftar

The committed assassination possibly will leave Khalifa Haftar at the helm of the rebel's army. Haftar is probably the CIA's man in Libya. He came to Benghazi on March 14, straight from Fairfax, Virginia, where had lived for 20 years. Upon his arrival with his two sons he self - proclaimed as commander of the Free Libyan Army. Claiming that he doesn't report to Omar Hariri, the rebels' defense minister or to Gen. Abdel Fattah Younes, who had the title of chief of staff, he told that one of his sons was in regular contact with James Clapper, U.S. director of National Intelliglence, a claim that a spokesperson for Clapper said was inaccurate. In March, Younes was rumoured to have nearly come to blows with Col Khalifa Belqasim Haftar, a rival within the rebel camp, and for a time both men claimed to be in command of the rebel forces as they raced towards Tripoli, only to be thrown back towards Benghazi. Hifter swiftly replaced Younis as the commander of rebel forces as his son claimed that he was responsible for commanding rebel troops in the field, while Younes served as chief of staff back at headquarters. Omar Hariri, defence minister at the time, represented the military before the NTC, he said in late April. Furthermore he claimed that his father along with Jalil and Ali Essawi that later signed the warrant against Younes worked together as a team, a kind of military council. According to Hifter Jalil and Essawi was a figurehead and commander in chief only in name. But in the contrary it seems that the NTC degraded his role and promoted Younes. As Abdulhafiz Ghoga, the NTC's vice chairman and spokesman, told Al Jazeera in an interview later Younes was at the top of the army’s chain of command. Hariri represented the military before the NTC, it was true, but Hifter was only a commander, one of many leaders of the newly formed rebel brigades.

In recent months, the dispute seemed to resolve. The NTC presented a more disciplined public face to the media, eliminated contradictory remarks about who was in charge and minimised Hifter's role in favor of Younes. It replaced Defence Minister Omar Hariri with Jalal al-Dogheily, a senior opposition figure who was older than both Younes and Hifter and whose job was to both coordinate military affairs and mediate between the two men. 

It seems that the pro - American rebel's officials blame the Islamists, the more localized conservatives blame Qaddafi while himself blames Al - Qaeda. Anyway the whole story underlines the fragmentaion of the revolutionaries among different foreign policy trends, local mentality, contest for power among the tribes and fundamentalism and retaliation. Abdul Fatah Youni's death was for the moment per se less important than the ongoing political manipulation of the assassination. Finally, it must be noted that the the Obeidat tribe loyal to Yunis blaming the NTC for his death, that Jalil had wished that "these events will not turn from the revolution" expressing his "condolences ... especially (to) the tribe of Obeidat that have paid heavily with more than 40 martyrs and in excess of 500 injured at the front", is divided to 15 sub - tribes standing at the center of the Harabi Confederation, the practically hegemonic tribe among the tribes of Cyrenaica, which overlaps between the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and al Qaeda.