An adopted son of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi,
Abhallha Mone Moussa Moummare, is resisting attempts by Zimbabwean authorities
to have him deported back to Tripoli, Libya citing fears for his security,
Senators heard yesterday.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi told a Senate thematic committee on human rights that Gaddafi recently
refused to disembark from a plane in Addis Ababa where he was supposed to board
a connecting flight to Libya.
Minister Ziyambi was briefing Senators on how Government
was dealing with refugees and addressing their living conditions in prisons.
The committee, led by Senator Oliver Chidhawu (Zanu-PF),
had expressed concern over the living conditions of inmates, including a diet
of vegetables without meat for days.
They also asked why refugees were being lumped together
with serving prisoners.
“We do not have refugees in prison but prohibited
immigrants. They are fined and an order for deportation is given. Some of them
stay for over two years. It is a challenge really,” said Minister Ziyambi.
“In certain instances some of them refuse to go to their
original countries and saying if we go there we will be persecuted. I know
there is one who refused to go, is it Gaddafi,” he said.
“He was deported through Ethiopia (but) when he got to
Addis, he said ‘I am not going to Libya’ and they had to bring him back,” he
said.
In an interview, Minister Ziyambi said Gaddafi’s son ran
away from Libya after his father was deposed and killed in 2011, and arrived in
Harare in 2014.
He has since approached the High Court challenging his
detention at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and wants to be granted refugee
or asylum status.
“There are some court applications challenging his
detention. So we are waiting for the outcome. Initially, his identity could not
be ascertained definitively. Under those circumstances, it was not prudent to
grant that status without ascertaining for ourselves. So he was deported but
refused to go to Libya. He said he was more comfortable here. He was deported
and while in Addis en-route to Libya, he refused to disembark from the plane,”
said Minister Ziyambi.
Responding to questions from Senators, Minister Ziyambi
said it was not ideal to detain prohibited immigrants in prisons but Government
was doing so because there were no safe places to keep them while they waited
for deportation.
“We are seized with that but the dilemma is that we do not
have anywhere to put them. The prison was the only place considered as an
alternative,” said Minister Ziyambi.
Commenting on living conditions in prisons, Minister
Ziyambi said they were considering disposing some of them like Harare Central
Prison to land developers and use the proceeds to construct prisons with better
facilities.
On the issue of meat, Minister Ziyambi said they had gone a
long way in addressing the challenge. Herald
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