Sponsored Links
More Islamist prisoners are expected to be released
Report prisoners will be released after talks with Gathafi Foundation headed by Libyan leader’s son.
TRIPOLI - Libya will free on Thursday 45 members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), according to the Oea daily newspaper, close to Seif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi.
The prisoners, being held in Tripoli's Abu Slim prison, are to be released after talks with the Gathafi Foundation, headed by Islam, said the Thursday edition of the newspaper.
Forty-three members of other groups are also to be released the same day, Oea said without elaborating.
In March, Libya announced it had freed 136 LIFG members in the past two years.
"Since the start of the dialogue two years ago, 136 members of the group have been freed," the Gathafi Foundation said.
"Work is continuing to release another group among the 170 remaining members," it added.
Formed clandestinely in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, the Libyan group first came to wider knowledge in 1995 as it launched an armed campaign against Gathafi's regime.
Al-Qaeda announced in November 2007 that the LIFG had joined the jihadist network.
From his base in central Asia, LIFG leader Abu Laith al-Libi became a trusted lieutenant of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He was reported killed in February 2008 in a US missile strike.
