Muslam Musaab (Musaab Muslam)

Biography

2024: Kidnapping

On August 18, 2024, the Central Bank of Libya, based in Tripoli, announced that it would stop all operations and would not resume work until the director of the bank's information technology department, Musaab Muslam, who was kidnapped earlier in the day near his home, was released.

The bank said it was not yet known who was behind the abduction of the head of the IT department. In addition, the statement noted that other bank officials also received threats from unknown sources, in connection with which the bank decided to suspend all operations until "the intervention of the relevant authorities and the resolution of this unpleasant situation."

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Reuters

Libya's central bank is the only internationally recognized depository of Libyan oil revenues, the country's vital economic asset. Richard Norland, the US ambassador to Libya, previously noted that attempts to replace the bank's top management by force could lead to Libya losing access to international financial markets. Norland met with bank governor Sadiq Kabir to discuss the gathering of armed groups around the bank's Tripoli headquarters. "Libya's wealth distribution disputes must be settled through transparent, inclusive negotiations on a single, approved whole plan," Norland said.

A tense political situation remains in Libya: the country's eastern chat is controlled by the Libyan National Army, and in the west, including the capital Tripoli, power belongs to the Government of National Unity. Libya's central bank is located in Tripoli, while its branch in the city of Benghazi functions to the east. It is known that on August 9, at least nine people were killed and sixteen more were injured in military clashes in Tajoura, an eastern suburb of Tripoli.

The bank said in a statement that it refuses to use the methods of mafia structures, "which are practiced by some parties outside the law."^[1]

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