The Russian “Foundation for the Protection of National Values” has published an open letter to Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj, Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya and Prime Minister of the government of the National Accord of Libya, calling for the immediate release of arrested Russian representatives of the Foundation.
According to the final declarations of the Berlin Libya Conference of 19 January 2020, Sarraj should take measures to release all illegally detained persons.
The President of the Foundation, Alexander Malkevich, demanded that the Libyan head of government begin to fulfill his obligations and release the Foundation’s employees Maxim Shugalei and Samer Hassan Ali Seifan, who were arrested by the Libyan military in Tripoli in May 2019.
Malkevich pointed out that the two sociologists were arrested because of their work in Libya: they discovered from opinion polls and data collection that trust in the Sarraj government is dwindling rapidly among Libyan citizens.
This, according to Malkevich, was the real reason for the arrest, in which foreign secret services were allegedly also involved – this would be particularly explosive if this accusation turns out to be true.
The foundation sees no legal basis for the arrest of its representatives and published a request for their immediate release in a letter.
According to Malkevich: “We believe that one of the aims of this arrest of Russian citizens was to prevent the dissemination of the results of their social studies, which prove that confidence in the Libyan Government is waning”.
