Libya’s parliament bans Gaddafi-era officials from government

Libya’s interim parliament has passed a controversial law banning anyone who held a senior position under Col Muammer Gaddafi from holding office.

With deputies under pressure from gunmen demanding the legislation and blockading the ministries of justice and foreign affairs, the so-called “political isolation” law passed with 115 out of 157 votes.

It immediately throws into question the status of Ali Zidane, the prime minister, who served as a diplomat under Gaddafi, the Libyan leader deposed and later killed after a four decade reign.

The law could also upend much of the Libya’s government, potentially destabilising the country’s already faltering security and weakening its moribund economy. Mohammed Magarief, the head of parliament, once served as an ambassador under Gaddafi; Ali al-Aujali, foreign minister, is a career diplomat; Mohammed Mahmoud al-Bargati, defence minister, is a former air force officer; Al-Kilani al-Jazi, finance minister, taught at a public university; and Abdul-Bari Hadi al-Arusi, oil minister, served as an engineer at a state-owned petroleum company.

Gunmen lit up the sky over Tripoli with celebratory gunfire as news of the law’s passage spread, a witness said.

The law includes a provision precluding it from being subject to judicial review. Human rights activists roundly condemned it as overly broad and a violation of Libya’s own laws and universal principles of justice.

“The general congress today passed a law that likely violates human rights and that also violates Libya’s provisional constitution,” Hanan Salah, Libya researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in an interview. “The provisions are sweeping and vague. Although we understand a desire to ban corrupt and abusive officials from partaking in future decision-making, this law is completely flawed.”

A strong political dimension drove passage of the law, which garnered the support of many in the country’s Muslim Brotherhood and allied Islamist factions. They were excluded from public life under Gaddafi but lost to liberals in elections last year.

The provisions of the law will probably exclude from public life Mahmoud Jebril, pictured, leader of the country’s liberal faction, who served under Gaddafi as an investment adviser but defected and helped garner international support for the 2011 uprising, then led a coalition in July elections.

The law bars Gaddafi-era officials from public life for 10 years and calls for the creation of a “high committee to implement the criteria for occupying public positions” to purge them from office and create a questionnaire which all applicants for government jobs must fill out.