Libyans admit missing reporter detained

CAIRO — Authorities in western Libya revealed Saturday that they had detained a journalist, two days after he disappeared in the capital, Tripoli, after a news conference with the prime minister.

Libyan television journalist Ziyad al-Warfali disappeared after the conference with newly appointed Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah late Thursday, the Libyan media authority said in a statement.

The statement said al-Warfali had been arrested but did not mention which of Libya’s many security agencies detained him. It also did not reveal his whereabouts, saying only that he would be released “soon.”

The statement was issued after al-Warfali’s family and employer spoke out about his disappearance.

At the news conference, al-Warfali asked about the fate of Hannibal Gadhafi, the son of Libya’s late leader, Moammar Gadhafi, who has been imprisoned in Lebanon, according to the Libyan Organization for Independent Media.

He also asked about the unification of Libya’s army, which requires dismantling several militias that have profited from years of chaos in the oil-rich North African country.

The media authority said al-Warfali had not obtained the proper work permit required for journalists in Libya.

The Libyan capital is controlled by an array of armed groups and militias, loosely allied with a U.N.-supported government. Those militias have proved difficult for the Tripoli government to control in the past.

Last week, Fathi Bashagha, the powerful interior minister of Libya’s U.N.-backed government, survived an ambush by gunmen on his motorcade in Tripoli. Bashagha’s office called the attack an “attempted assassination.”