Black Libyan minister Mabroukah Toughi says arrest was ‘racism’

GBNews24 Desk//

When Mabroukah Toughi, Libya’s culture and knowledge development minister, filed a complaint against her deputy at the public prosecutor’s office on December 29, she did not expect to find herself arrested.

Toughi, Libya’s first Black female minister, was accused of corruption and taken to a prison in Tripoli, where she spent six days locked up along with other female prisoners, reports Al Jazeera.

Speaking from the temporary accommodation she is living in after her home in Tripoli was confiscated by the government, Toughi told Al Jazeera she was shocked by her arrest.

“Even if I was accused of killing people, there should be procedures that they should have taken with people like myself who have immunity [from prosecution], such as withdrawing the immunity, or preventing me from travelling,” Toughi said.

Toughi said her initial complaint against her under-secretary, Mumar al-Dawai, came after she was threatened by him for pushing back against corruption she alleges he committed.

The minister was eventually found not guilty after a government investigation, which reported that there was no reason for her to not resume her work. However, she is still unable to as Salama el-Geual, who was temporarily appointed as her replacement, has not stepped down, and the government has not officially commented on her case.

El-Geual’s refusal to leave office echoed the events of Toughi’s initial appointment to the position in March last year, when the previous minister refused to hand over the ministership. As a result, Toughi was the final minister to start her job.

“It’s racism, they can’t imagine a Black woman from the south being in a leading position in this country,” said Toughi. “They also put similar pressure on the previous minister appointed from my community.”

Al-Dawai, el-Geual, and the office of the public prosecutor did not respond to requests for comment from Al Jazeera.