The Libyan Attorney General’s (AG) Office has ordered the imprisonment of the officials of the Higher Education Ministry’s scholarships office in Türkiye: namely the heads of attachés and scholarship students’ department, internal review department and the acting head of the financial control department.
The publishing in last July of the lists of the students sent on government funds to Türkiye (first by journalist Khalil Al-Hassi) sparked controversy and upset on social media among Libyans as some of the scholarships were for relatives of government officials and House of Representatives’ members.
At the time, the Attorney General’s Office suspended the 14.6 million euros Türkiye scholarships’ lists, while Dbeibah formed a committee to probe the lists.
The AG’s Office said evidence had shown that the indicted employees had abused the authorities of their jobs in a violation of the law in 757 scholarships. In addition, the Office ordered the payment of students’ grants aboard if they were not included in the violation list.
In the meantime, the Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, issued an order halting the scholarships of 852 students abroad based on the AG Office’s investigations, in addition to stripping the Minister of Higher Education off his authority to issue scholarship approvals or even covering the funds of Libyan students studying at their expenses overseas.
Dbeibah ordered the suspension of the heads of attachés and scholarship students’ department, internal review department, the acting head of the financial control department, and the head of administrative and financial affairs department at the Higher Education Ministry.
