Libya health minister arrested over drug imports case

TRIPOLI: Libya´s health minister and other officials have been arrested in connection with a corruption case involving the import of cancer treatment drugs from Iraq, authorities said on Wednesday.

Ramadan Boujenah and four senior health ministry officials from the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) were detained after “violating regulations on importing cancer treatment medicine from a pharmaceutical factory in Iraq”, the prosecutor general´s office said.

Libya has been mired in unrest since the 2011 Nato-backed uprising that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi. It remains split between the UN-recognised GNU led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah and a rival administration in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.