Libyan gov't abducts anticorruption official in fund dispute

CAIRO (AP) — One of Libya’s top anti-corruption officials was abducted by a militia tied to the interior ministry in the capital, the audit bureau said Monday, the latest twist in a long-running contest over the country’s vast wealth.

The abduction of Reda Gergab, the audit bureau’s administrative director, brought deep tensions in the Tripoli-based administration to the surface at a time of worsening economic crisis. The audit bureau is an independent body appointed by the Libyan parliament in Tripoli and is a rare check on the misappropriation of funds in the oil-rich country.

“It is regrettable that the body entrusted by the community to implement the law is violating it,” the audit bureau said in a statement, accusing the interior ministry of “forcibly disappearing” Gergab to prevent him from uncovering financial irregularities and blocking the ministry’s large and suspicious transactions.

Although the Tripoli-based government was set up by the U.N. and recognized by Western countries, many of its institutions, including the interior ministry, are in reality staffed and controlled by unruly militias.

The interior ministry acknowledged Gergab’s detention and sought to justify it, arguing that the public health crisis caused by COVID-19 required the dispensation of urgent funds “to rescue the Libyan people” and that the government is merely “carrying out responsibilities" undermined by the anticorruption agency.

“We have noticed that the audit bureau is not performing its role according to the law,” the ministry said, referring to the body's review of government operations amid accusations of financial wrongdoing. “The government will never submit to political blackmail and arm-twisting.”

Power in Libya is divided between the weak Tripoli government, supported by Turkey and a...