The Libyan Attorney General Al-Siddiq Al-Sour said on Wednesday that the Derna court decided to reserve Derna floods case and ruling for January 11, after the Public Prosecution had filed a criminal case against 16 officials responsible for the floods in the city, including the Head of the Derna City Reconstruction Fund and a member of the financial committee in charge of implementing the reconstruction plan.
In a press conference, Al-Sour discussed the collapse of the Derna dams as an issue of public opinion, saying it could have been avoided, explaining that a Swiss consulting office had recommended modifications and maintenance to the two dams since 2003.
"The former head of the Water Resources Authority, his successor, the director of the dams administration, his predecessor, and the head of the dam maintenance department in the eastern region did not provide anything to defend their responsibility for mismanaging the administrative and financial tasks assigned to them and for their mistakes to prevent the occurrence of the flood disaster", Al-Sour said, stressing that a number of those accused in the Derna disaster are abroad.
"They will be tried in absentia and arrest warrants have been issued against them. The prosecution has begun requesting the issuance of a Red Notice from Interpol, which will be transmitted this week." He added.
Al-Sour addressed the intelligence service regarding providing them with a code of investigations and evidence regarding the meeting of Foreign Minister Najla Al-Mangoush and her Israeli counterpart, and a code of investigation procedures by the government in this regard to decide on taking any measures in this file.
Regarding the issue of the National Oil Corporation contract with a foreign consortium to develop the Hamada oil field, Al-Sour said that they asked the National Oil Corporation to stop the contract regarding the NC7 Hamada field due to harm to the Libyan interest, adding “We are working seriously on it and the investigation procedures are still continuing.”
For their endeavor to digitize criminal and judicial work, Al-Sour confirmed that the Public Prosecution has completed the digitization of 1,251,656 criminal cases and 912,000 evidentiary collection records through the digital transformation system for the last three years.
He pointed out the importance of the digital transformation project at the Public Prosecution in accessing information, facilitating justice procedures, enhancing the concept of transparency, improving administrative performance, and achieving sustainable development goals. He also explained that the Public Prosecution was also able to include criminal cases over the past 35 years in the digital transformation system.
