Former GNC president condemned by Libyan PM Al Thinni

Nuri Abu Sahmain, the former president of the General National Congress, has been dubbed as “an ordinary citizen”, Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni and parliamentary head Ageela Saleh and Abdullah Al-Thinni said in Tobruk, after a handful of former Congress members turned up to meeting in Tripoli to appoint a new prime minister.

“The procedures and meetings that have been taken by Abu Sahmain are invalid,” Thinni said, “He is now an ordinary citizen… The House of Representatives is the only legitimate body in Libya.”

Abu Sahmain announced a new government in Libya, which Tobruk officials denounced unconstitutional, plunging Libya further into political chaos.

In a wide-ranging series of statements on Libya’s present crisis, Al Thinni and Saleh condemned the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadik Al-Ghariani, who in recent days used his position to attack the House of Representatives as well as support Operation Libya Dawn (Fajr Libya) in Tripoli and the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shoura Council.

“The Grand Mufti has issued illegitimate and incorrect fatwas,” Al Thinni said, condemning Ghariani for being ideologically motivated and issuing statements that were not job.

The Libyan parliament and government is meeting in Tobruk, because Al Thinni says Tripoli is not safe for the government. “Most of the ministers have received threats, and the headquarters of Council of Ministers is not safe at all,” he said.

He said many people’s Tripoli homes, including his own, had been attacked and torched in the past 24 hours, calling the attackers “cowards”.

“Libya cannot be ruled by force,” he said.

Al Thinni said that his government was looking to the UN Security Council to approve measures to aid the Libyan situation.

Saleh, who said that a law on terrorism would be passed soon, added that HoR members were visiting Egypt, France and US in search of support and that he himself was going to Egypt tomorrow to meet President Abdul-Fattah Al-S