Libyan authorities are investigating the introduction of toxic gas into the country

Cairo: «Middle East»
The Libyan prosecution is conducting an extensive investigation into the process of seizing a large quantity of toxic methyl bromide gas cylinders, which were found smuggled inside a truck in the city of Zliten, located in western Libya.

This quantity of gas, which is prohibited to be imported, is the second that was seized within 5 months and the third within a year, but the official authorities did not reveal how it was brought into the country from land or sea ports.

A source in the Public Prosecutor’s Office told Asharq Al-Awsat that the investigation authorities have begun their work to find out who is behind those involved in bringing this quantity of methyl bromide gas into the country, which is described as “toxic and carcinogenic.”

The Office of the Attorney General, Counselor Al-Siddiq Al-Sour, announced, on Thursday evening, that the prosecution had ordered the imprisonment of the contractor who transported quantities of smuggled methyl bromide gas into the country, and who was found to be involved in the activity of trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances, explaining that he had received a report about “unlawful traffic.” Justified across the Libyan cities for one of the people wanted by the prosecution for his involvement in the activity of trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances on a large scale,” noting that the judicial officers of the Criminal Investigation Department in Zliten tracked down the accused; He was arrested red-handed in possession of 253 cylinders containing methyl bromide gas.

The office explained that the seized gas “is classified among the list of materials prohibited for import, because it causes chronic diseases in humans.” “It causes harm to the ecosystem.” Therefore, the investigator ordered the accused to be detained pending the case.

The General Administration of Environmental Sanitation, affiliated with the Ministry of Local Government in the interim “National Unity” government, had previously returned, at the end of last August, a shipment of “internationally banned gas” to the country of origin, after it had been seized and detained in the port of Al-Khoms for a year. The prosecution pre-empted the process of returning the gas shipment to the country of origin by presenting a sample of the seized gas cylinders to the Environmental Research Department at the Petroleum Institute. The results of the qualitative analysis of the samples showed that the cylinders contain a toxic and carcinogenic gas, which has toxic environmental and health effects that continue throughout the planting season.

The source did not disclose the method of bringing this quantity of gas into the country, but merely said that “the case is under investigation by the Public Prosecution,” and that the accused “intentionally hid the gas cylinders inside a dirt truck, but the traffic police’s suspicions about it made them stop it and subject it to inspection.”

The National Anti-Corruption Authority had informed the Public Prosecution of a similar incident, after arresting an importer who brought 179,000 kilograms of “methyl bromide” gas to Libya in the form of liquefied gas (under pressure). She said at the time that “he knew about the toxicity of the shipment, and the harm it was causing to the health and environmental systems.”