Asking for trouble

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33887, 5 July 1975, Page 13

Asking for trouble

(N.Z.P. A.Reuter —Copyright) CAIRO. Libyan authorities have arrested 39 military officers who asked the country’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, to have his mental health checked in hospital, Cairo newspapers reported. The papers were quoting three Libyans who sought asylum in Egypt a week ago. They are Hashem Daoud AlFakhry, who worked for a petroleum company, Mohammed Ahmed Ghdaban, who worked at the ports department, and Ahmed Youssef Abul-Gassem, a soldier in the Republican Guard. The semi-official newspaper, Al-Ahram, said on Saturday that the asylum requests had been refused and the three would be handed back to Libya. But today’s report did not make it clear if this had been done. According to these press accounts, the three men said that a group of Army officers protested in March last year when Colonel Gadaffi sent a telegram to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt criticising his decision to cease fire with Israel. They also asked Colonel Gadaffi to report to a mental hospital for a check-up. The 39 officers were arrested immediately and were still in jail, the reports said.