The Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Member of its Board of Directors, Abul Qasim Snengir, was arrested Saturday morning at Mitiga Airport in Tripoli while returning from abroad with his family, “in an arbitrary and inappropriate manner that does not rise to the level of responsibility in dealing with a public and national figure.”
NOC called on the Presidential Council, the Government of National Unity (GNU) and the Office of the Attorney General to take all legal measures and not allow torture, according to a statement the Corporation published on its official Facebook page..
It also called on the United Nations, Amnesty International and human rights organizations to intervene immediately and urgently to release Shengir and to hold the kidnappers responsible for his safe return to his family as soon as possible without conditions or restrictions.
NOC stated that the arrest came “within the framework of the systematic war waged by a large coalition that brought together some militias, smugglers, some corrupt political figures, ideologues, and common stakeholders against the National Oil Corporation in order to blackmail, infiltrate, politicize and drag it from the neutrality it pursued during the past years, through which it was able to maintain the flow of oil for the benefit of all Libyans.”
“NOC communicated with all the actors in the Libyan scene and expressed its complete and categorical rejection of allowing such absurd and irresponsible acts to take place against any person from the oil sector, and that their occurrence indicates a state of confusion and chaos in the country and failure to follow official procedures for summons and investigation,” it added.
The Corporation noted “its deep concern about such repeated militia actions that follows the policy of arbitrary and unofficial arrest of public figures, which may have serious repercussions on the conduct of operations in the oil sector.”