SA woman arrested in Libya

[iolsa]

Libya - South Africa’s ambassador to Libya Mohammed Dangor has confirmed that a South African woman has been arrested in Benghazi, Libya.

The unnamed woman was arrested, with three other foreigners, for trying to convert local Muslims to Christianity, according to Libyan security official Hussein bin Hameida, quoted by the news agency AFP.

“An Egyptian, a South African, a South Korean and a Swede who holds a US passport, were arrested on Tuesday at a printing house, where they were printing books calling for conversion to Christianity.

“Libya is a Muslim country and preaching another religion is a crime under Libyan law,” he said.

The arrest came just days before Libya marked the second anniversary of the start of the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi on Sunday.

Bin Hameida said an investigation was still under way and the suspects would be “handed over to the intelligence services soon”.

Dangor said on Sunday night that he was unable to confirm that the South African woman – who he believed was from the Western Cape – had been arrested for proselytising. “There are other theories too. This place is a rumour mill. We are investigating.”

He said a consular official from the embassy had already been in touch with the Benghazi authorities and the woman and would travel to Benghazi on Tuesday to seek access to the woman and speak to the authorities to try to help her.

He noted that the consular official would go to Benghazi under heavy security because of the dangers there.

He recalled that the US ambassador had been killed there, by Islamist extremists, last year and the Italian consul-general had been shot at.

AFP reported that since the fall of Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, the small Christian community has feared for its safety, especially after a church bombing in December killed two people in the Mediterranean town of Dafniya.

Catholic clergymen in Libya have said Christians are being driven out of eastern Libya by Muslim fundamentalists.

The Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli has said the situation was “critical” and the “atmosphere very tense”.

Two religious communities in the east of the country – the Congregation of the Holy Family of Spoleto and the Franciscan Sisters of Child Jesus had been forced to leave “after being pressured by fundamentalists”.

Independent Foreign Service



IOLSA

[iolsa]

[Folami David]

No one should be forced to change his or her religion. It is not proper in any way. They should be pardoned sha

[Folami David]