A controversial draft law has recenly re-emerged in the Libyan political scene, is designed to exclude a broad spectrum of Libyans who held leadership positions or political or administrative offices during Gaddafi’s reign from participating in public offices.
The proposal was put forward by a number of civil organizations to the National Transitional Council while in power, but the latter ignored it. Later, the draft was adopted by parliamentary blocs of the newly elected GNC, allegedly pro-Islamist or Muslim Brotherhood.
Scope of prosecution
A controversial draft law has recenly re-emerged in the Libyan political scene, is designed to exclude a broad spectrum of Libyans who held leadership positions or political or administrative offices during Gaddafi’s reign from participating in public offices.
The proposal was put forward by a number of civil organizations to the National Transitional Council while in power, but the latter ignored it. Later, the draft was adopted by parliamentary blocs of the newly elected GNC, allegedly pro-Islamist or Muslim Brotherhood.
Scope of prosecution
The highly controversial law will empower the authorities to bring criminal charges against any person who took part in the coup led by Gaddafi or held a position as a prime minister, minister, MP or a governor. The criminal charges, which will not be subject to any form of appeal, will also be brought against any person who held a position as attorney general, public prosecutor, central bank governor or a chief clerk at any ministry, university, institute or academy, in addition to the academic administrators of the said institutions.
This law will also affect any diplomat who held a position as ambassador, popular office director and the like. It will not spare editors of newspapers and magazines, directors of state radio and television stations and judges at the people’s court or any special court or popular prosecution office or revolutionary prosecution panel, in addition to any person who worked in the internal security apparatus and all directors of the external security department.
Heads of supreme institutions, high councils, state-owned companies, overseas investment foundations and Gaddafi associations and societies were also targeted by this law, in addition to any person who held a position as chairman or member of the secretariat of any union in Libya.
In addition to the aforementioned positions, the separation will include any person indicted by the public prosecutor for involvement in corrupting the country’s political, economic or social life, although “involvement” seems to be a very loose term.
Separation as mentioned in the said draft law denotes denying any person covered under its provisions the right to:
– Conduct political or administrative activities.
– Become a candidate in any elections held in the country.
– Form any civil society organization or institution or become a member in any.
– Become a member in any union, league, syndicate, club and the like for a period of ten years.
Getting rid of Jibril
Some observers believe that passing this law is an attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya to put itself in the driver’s seat in the Libyan political arena by eliminating their strongest rival, Mahmoud Jibril, who alongside his allies, prevented them from dominating the Arab Spring after achieving a landslide victory in the GNC elections. Jibril had served as head of the National Planning Council and the National Economic Board from 2007 to 2011. He also served as interm prime minister during the revolution and chaired the National Transition Council for seven months in 2011.
The Justice and Construction Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political façade, strongly supported the draft law. Its spokesman, Mohammed al-Harizi said that it protects the 17 February revolution from the former regime followers who corrupted the country’s political, social and financial life.
Al-Harizi said his party is determined to prevent those people from holding leadership positions for many years to come and will “enable the rebels and all free people in Libya to assume responsibility, fix what the former regime had destroyed and rebuild Libya on sound and transparent foundations.
Pressing need
“Political separation is vital for change and democratic transition,” said spokesman of the Islam-oriented Al-Watan Party, Mohamed al-Ghoul. However, he says he renounces stringency and despotism and his party wants the political separation period to be reduced to four years, which should expire two years after presenting the financial corruption cases to the attorney general.
Nevertheless, Al Watan Party, according to al-Ghoul, demands the addition of another category of persons who should be covered under the political separation provisions. Those persons include former aides of Gaddafi sons who worked as office directors, and friends of Gaddafi’s sons and directors of their companies. Al Watan Party also demands the revocation of the jail sentence in the draft law and wants the law to be effective retroactively as of 1977 instead of 1969.
Omar al-Habbasi, of the Integrity and Patriotism Commission, renowned for his hardline stance, also supports this draft and believes that 10 years is sufficient to prevent the former regime followers from taking part in creating the state envisaged by those who staged the revolution.
The citizenship right
Former editor-in-chief of Al-Shatt Newspaper (issued by the General Press Agency during Gaddafi’s reign) Salima al-Madani wondered: “Should an oil well be filled with earth just because it used to pump during Gaddafi’s reign? Should qualified Libyans in all fields be banished and sidelined just because they held positions during Gaddafi’s reign, which lasted 43 years?”
Al-Madani believes that any person who did not carry arms or denounce a fellow citizen should enjoy full citizenship rights and no one should be entitled to deny any person these rights.
The liberals feel secure
The National Forces Alliance led by Mahmoud Jibril is not worried about presenting the draft law to the GNC; they are confident it will not pass. The NFA spokesman inside the GNC, Toufik al-Shuhaibi said that the current version of the draft will not get the required 120 votes and will be rejected by other members than the NFA.
“In principle, the NFA is not against any law that would prevent any person who took part in any way in the corruption of Libya during the past decades from holding a government position,” Al-Shuhaibi said. The rejection, he said, was because a small group singlehandedly prepared the draft while others had no say in it.
Al-Shuhaibi underlined that if the draft is passed into law, it will destroy all future national conciliation efforts because it will prevent a large number of Libyans, including those not involved in corrupting the country’s political, economic or social life, from taking part in shaping the country’s future.
Settling of scores
While political activists believe the law aims at settling political scores, its provisions in fact cover many who have nothing to do with politics in the first place or who held positions consistent with their academic qualifications and specializations, such as university deans and department heads.
This law is very similar to the De-Baathification Law in Iraq, which deprived that country from many qualified and experienced people in many areas. It forced people with long experience in running the country’s affairs to join or create parties with overseas affiliations aimed at undermining the democratic process in Iraq.
If passed, the new law will ostracize a large number of Libyans who held positions that were an integral part of the state machinery for more than four decades.
