Major-General Abdullah Mansour, who was one of the former Qadhafi regime’s security and media leaders, has been released after spending nine years in a Tripoli prison. Once he was released activists circulated pictures on social media of Mansour accompanied by: 

• the GNU Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Adel Jumaa; and 
• Libya’s former Ambassador to Morocco, Abdulmajid Saif al-Nasr, who is envoy to the Maghreb of the House of Representatives’ speaker, Aguila Saleh. 

Mansour headed Qadhafi’s security apparatus and later assumed the leadership of the General Authority for Jamahiriya Radio and the Media Services Company. He was commonly referred to as a ‘man of the tent’ because of his close relationship with Colonel Qadhafi.

In contrast to the West’s rush to hold elections, the African Union (AU) seems to be prioritising the promotion of perceived national reconciliation efforts — despite this often only benefiting the former Qadhafi regime ‘greens’ — and is accelerating its steps in this direction. Throughout the past week, official sources in Niger revealed that Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum and Congo-Brazzaville’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who chairs the AU’s High-Level Commission for Libya, had been involved in the efforts to obtain Mansour’s release from a Tripoli prison operated by the GNU-affiliated Special Deterrence Forces (SDF) on 20 February.

Immediately after his release, Mansour flew to Niger where he was received by the president’s representatives. He was returned to Niger at the request of the Awlad Suleiman tribe — based in southern Libya, Niger and Chad — of which Bazoum is also a member. According to Bazoum the tribe asked him to intercede with the GNU which explains his mediation role. After the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi’s regime Mansour lived in Niamey until 2014 when he was handed over to the Libyan government. At the time, the Niger government justified the extradition decision by stating that Mansour ‘did not respect the conditions of his asylum.’ A Libyan court sentenced him to prison but has now acquitted him before ordering his release.

The decision to release Mansour sparked mixed reactions in Libya: some considered him a victim of the country’s new leaders; some believe that the move will help facilitate national reconciliation; while others — including Fathi Turbel who is the lawyer for the families of the victims of the 1996 Abu Salim prison massacre — see the release and Mansour’s flight to Niger as a ‘smuggling operation’, which was facilitated for political gains at the expense of a free and fair judiciary. 

The most striking difference between the release of Mansour and other Qadhafi figures is that they were released under Dbeibah’s tenure and with the involvement of the Attorney General. In a statement published on GNU-owned Hakomitna platform, Dbeibah thanked the Attorney General and the Military Prosecutor for their ‘response to the efforts made to release Abdullah Mansour.’ This is a new and relatively worrisome dynamic for observers because previous prison releases — such as that of Sa’adi Qadhafi in September 2021 — were made directly following GNU decrees with practically no involvement from the judicial authorities.

Mansour was said to be released as part of his efforts to achieve national reconciliation. Upon his release, Bazoum said: ‘There are three other main figures left, and President Sassou Nguesso is making practical efforts to release these personalities.’ There is speculation that the three may be: the notorious former intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, who was also Qadhafi’s brother-in-law; the head of the People’s Guard, Mansour Daw (a.k.a. Dhao and Daoul); and Ahmed Ibrahim, who, among other important figures in Qadhafi’s inner circle, are still under arrest or forceful detention in Tripoli with GNU affiliated armed groups.