Libyan President Mohamed Yousef El-Magariaf says 50 arrested for US Embassy attacks ‘preplanned’
Libya President Mohamed Yousef El-Magariaf said Sunday that 50 arrests have been made in connection with last week’s “preplanned” attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.
“The way these perpetrators acted and moved — I think we, and they’re choosing the specific date for this so-called demonstration, I think we have no, this leaves us with no doubt that this was pre-planned, determined,” Magariaf said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“And you believe that this was the work of Al Qaeda, and you believe that it was led by foreigners. Is that what you’re telling us?” CBS host Bob Schieffer asked.
“It was planned, definitely. It was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago. And they were planning this criminal act since their arrival,” Magariaf said.
When asked how many people had been arrested in connection with the assault, and replied: “About 50.”
But Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel A’al, when asked about that figure, told Reuters in Tripoli that only four arrests had been made and around 50 people were “wanted for investigation”.
“What I have is that four have been arrested,” he said.
He called the attacks “ugly” and “criminal” deeds that do not reflect the Libyan people’s view toward America.
“These ugly deeds, criminal deeds were directed against the late Ambassador Chris Stevens and his colleagues do not resemble any way, in any sense, the aspirations, the feelings of Libyans towards the United States and its citizens,” Magariaf said.
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