MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2020) Russia's Foundation for the Protection of National Values will initiate a new conference on Libya if the mechanisms of public pressure do not work and Tripoli does not release two Russian nationals illegally jailed in the North African country, head of the organization Alexander Malkevich told Sputnik.
Earlier in January, the foundation sent an open letter to Fayez Sarraj, the prime minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), demanding that he fulfill the obligations undertaken during the recent Berlin conference on Libya. The conclusions adopted at the conference stipulated that the Libyan authorities release all those arbitrary or illegally detained. Malkevich noted that that requirement entailed two employees of the foundation who were illegally detained while conducting sociological surveys in Libya.
"If the mechanisms of public pressure do not work, we will initiate a new conference on Libya comprising participants who will be able to force Sarraj to do what he has previously pledged to do," Malkevich added.
Malkevich noted that public and scientific circles in Europe support him.
"We will continue to take all necessary steps. On March 18, a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Libya will be held in Geneva. On this day in 2011, this sad resolution that closed the skies over Libya was adopted, and [Libya] fell a victim to international aggression. I am going to present a report at this meeting," Malkevich said.
In July 2019, Malkevich said that the foundation's two employees, including sociologist Maxim Shugaley, were detained in Libya. According to the foundation head, as members of a research group, they were engaged exclusively in conducting sociological surveys and studying the humanitarian, cultural and political situation in the country.
