TUNIS, Tunisia
Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche announced in a press conference Friday that the Tunisian consulate in Triploli, Libya, will be shut down.
The decision comes after the spokesman for the Tunisian foreign ministry, Mokhtar al-Shawashi, said that “the Tunisian diplomats are set to arrive at Carthage Airport at 11:30 local time (1030 GMT), in a flight coming from south of Djerba Island.”
Reports accessed by Anadolu Agency confirmed that the Tunisian diplomats reached the Ras Jedir border crossing with Libya on Friday morning.
An armed group had stormed the Tunisian consulate in Tripoli last Friday and kidnapped 10 Tunisians working there, before freeing three of them.
Reports said the kidnapping operation had the aim of “bartering for the release of Libyan Walid al-Qalib [who is detained in Tunisia].”
A Tunisian court of appeal ruled Thursday for the “temporary hand over” of Qalib to Libyan authorities, a court source told Anadolu Agency.
Last May, Qalib was imprisoned by Tunisian authorities for unknown reasons.
