(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged foreign embassies in Tripoli to ask the Libyan authorities what has happened to bookseller and cyber-dissident Abdel Razak Al Mansouri, who has disappeared without a trace since his 12 January 2005 arrest. Al Mansouri was reportedly arrested for mocking a speech by President Muammar Gaddafi in an article he sent […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has urged foreign embassies in Tripoli to ask the Libyan authorities what has happened to bookseller and cyber-dissident Abdel Razak Al Mansouri, who has disappeared without a trace since his 12 January 2005 arrest.
Al Mansouri was reportedly arrested for mocking a speech by President Muammar Gaddafi in an article he sent to a foreign website on 11 January. His family has received no word of him since his arrest.
“Although carried out by the police, the arrest seems more like a kidnapping. Abdel Razak Al Mansouri’s family has not been informed of the charges against him or told where he is being held, so we call on foreign diplomats based in Tripoli to ask the Libyan government for the official reason for his arrest and his place of detention,” RSF said.
Al Mansouri’s last article, dated 11 January and posted on the London-based dissident website http://www.akhbar-libya.com, mocked a speech made a few days before by President Gaddafi in which he said he “accepted different opinions.”
Two messages were posted on the Akhbar Libya website in late April and early May by persons claiming to be Al Mansouri’s sisters, Noria and Faiza, in which they said they were “proud” of their brother and called on other Libyan Internet users to follow his example by posting messages on the Internet in their own name.
Al Mansouri, 52, is believed to have been arrested in the eastern city of Tobruk on the evening of 12 January. The security services reportedly transferred him to a prison in Tripoli two days later. Only Akhbar Libya has reported his arrest, which has not been confirmed by the authorities.
Al Mansouri began writing articles for Akhbar Libya in 2004, discussing social issues and human rights violations by the Libyan authorities.
Libya is ranked 154th in RSF’s classification of 167 countries according to their respect for press freedom.
