Former Libyan foreign minister Abdelati al-Obeidi leaves the courtroom after the hearing yesterday.

AFP/Tripoli

Gunmen yesterday demanded the Libyan government’s resignation as they besieged ministries despite the adoption of a law to purge officials from the regime of dead dictator Muammar Gaddafi from their posts.

“We are determined to continue our movement until the departure of (Prime Minister) Ali Zeidan,” said Osama Kaabar, a leader of the militias who had promised to lift their siege if the law was passed.

The General National Congress, under pressure from the gunmen, on Sunday voted through the controversial law to exclude former Gaddafi regime officials from public posts in a move that could see the premier removed from office.

An AFP correspondent reported that armed men in vehicles equipped with machineguns and anti-aircraft weapons still surrounded the foreign and justice ministries yesterday.

“The adoption of the law on political exclusion is a major step in the right direction. But we will take our time to examine certain aspects of the law,” said Kaabar, who is also a vice president of the Superior Council of Libyan Tuwwar (revolutionaries).

“On the other hand we are determined to bring down the government of Ali Zeidan,” he said, accusing the premier of “provoking the thuwar”, former rebels who fought Gaddafi’s forces during the 2011 armed uprising.

Zeidan’s government launched a campaign a few weeks ago to remove the militias from the capital Tripoli.

“We hope that Ali Zeidan recognises his inability (to govern). I don’t understand why this man is in such a post,” said Kaabar, a former rebel close to Islamists.

“We reject any dialogue with the government,” he said when asked about negotiations with the government.

Under the law passed on Sunday, all those who held key official posts from September 1, 1969 when Gaddafi took power, until the fall of his regime in October 2011 will be excluded from government.

The ban will remain in force for 10 years, according to the text.

The draft law had caused a stir among Libya’s political elite, as senior members of the government could be affected, among them Zeidan and GNC president Mohamed Megaryef.

Both were diplomats under Gaddafi before joining the opposition in exile.

At least four ministers and 15 lawmakers also risk losing their jobs once the GNC’s legal commission ratifies the law, including the vice president of the national assembly Jomaa Atiga, an official said.

The gunmen, many former rebels who helped topple Gaddafi, had encircled the foreign ministry for a week and the justice ministry since Tuesday to pressure the national assembly to pass the law.

They vowed to stand their ground and expand their action unless their demands were satisfied, and warned against any GNC attempt to make exceptions to allow key individuals to keep their jobs.

Before Sunday’s vote the GNC, Libya’s national assembly and top political body, had debated the law several times without reaching an agreement.

The bill proved particularly controversial with the National Forces Alliance, the liberal coalition that dominated elections in July, who feared it was aimed at their leader Mahmoud Jibril who headed an economic council under Gaddafi.

Verdict on Gaddafi ministers in Lockerbie payout case delayed

A Libyan court yesterday postponed its verdict in the case of two officials from ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime accused of “financial crimes” connected to compensation for the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing.

Abdelati al-Obeidi, a former foreign minister, and Mohamed Belgassem al-Zwai, ex-speaker of parliament, were accused of mismanaging public funds in compensating families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing, according to charges read by the judge.

The criminal court in Tripoli postponed the verdict until June 17 “to allow more time to study the file”, the judge said.

At a hearing in September, the jailed pair pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their lawyer argued that they had not made any personal gain and had negotiated on behalf of the authorities.

The prosecution has said Obeidi and Zwai were responsible for negotiating settlements with the Lockerbie families and had paid out double the amount originally planned in return for Libya’s removal from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In 2003, the Gaddafi regime officially acknowledged responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed 270 people. Libya paid $2.7bn in compensation to victims’ families.