Gaddafi foreign minister arrested
Abdelati Obeidi was arrested on Tuesday from his farm near Tripoli.
| Abdelati Obeidi speaks exclusively to Al Jazeera’s James Bays in the Libyan capital, Tripoli |
Toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s foreign minister, Abdelati Obeidi, has been arrested.
He was said to have been taken into custody at his farm in Janzour, a suburb west of Tripoli, on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays met Obeidi and confirmed the arrest.
Bays said: “I can confirm that is true because a short time ago I was with some senior members of the military command and they said, ‘Would you like to see someone important we’ve captured?’
“I was ushered into a room. We were only allowed to go in there for two minutes. Inside the room was Mr. Abdelati Obeidi.”
Abdallah al-Hijazi, a close associate of Gaddafi, was also arrested in Tripoli, National Transitional Council (NTC) sources told Reuters news agency.
Gaddafi’s entourage has been hit by numerous high-profile defections, arrests and killings since the uprising that has ended his 42-year rule of the country.
The NTC said on Monday it believed its fighters had killed Gaddafi’s son Khamis and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi in clashes. Gaddafi’s wife and three of his children fled to Algeria on Monday, Algeria’s government said.