Libya’s newly elected interim government on Tuesday called on UN experts to publish a report accusing them of buying votes during world – led peace talks.
A UN panel had in a confidential report, seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday, stated that at least three participants were offered bribes of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The administration of the caretaker Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Tuesday issued a statement demanding that UN experts “publish their report on allegations of bribery” at the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in November.
“We will not allow anyone linked to corruption to take a position of responsibility,” the new unity government said, promising to “unite Libyans and reunite institutions.”
The report was prepared by UN experts tasked with investigating violations of an international arms embargo against Libya and will be presented to the Security Council in March.
A diplomatic source told AFP that the section in question could be excluded from the final, published report.
Launched in Tunisia in November, the LPDF is part of a UN effort to end a decade of violence and unite government institutions in Libya.
Last month, the 75 delegates elected by the UN to represent a wide range of Libyan constituencies appointed Dbeibah and a three-member presidential council to look forward to the country’s elections in December.
Tunisia’s talks were already joking about allegations of transplants before Sunday’s revelations.
Dbeibah, a billionaire from the western city of Misrata, has not yet appointed his cabinet and must win the trust of the Libyan parliament by March 19.
The President of Parliament has said that the legislator will be convened on 8 March to discuss such a vote.
The UN’s Libyan mission UNSMIL said on Tuesday that it could not comment on the allegations of bribery and noted that the expert panel “is a separate entity, completely independent of UNSMIL” and reports directly to the Security Council.
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