(Reuters) – Authorities based in eastern Libya are investigating the disappearance of a member of parliament, but the region's interior ministry said it does not believe he was murdered.
Benghazi Member of the House of Representatives (HoR) Ibrahim Aldrashi is missing after being robbed at his home, the ministry's media chief announced in a statement Friday night.
The ministry of Osama Hamad's government, a rival of the internationally recognized Tripoli government, said it had “taken immediate steps to investigate this incident.”
“The Ministry of Interior also strongly denies the news circulating about his (Mr. al-Durashi's) murder,” the statement said.
In July 2019, HoR member Siham Sergeva and her husband were abducted from their home in Benghazi. The two remain missing, and the United Nations mission to Libya is calling for their release.
Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, is home to the Hamad government, which is allied with the HoR and the Libyan National Army led by military commander Khalifa Haftar.
The HoR was elected in 2014, when Libya was torn apart by civil war between rival governments in the east and west.
Libya was plunged into security chaos after a NATO-backed uprising overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
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