Libya’s education minister was arrested earlier today as part of an inquiry into a lack of schoolbooks, the country’s prosecution service says.
Moussa al-Megarief “was placed in preventative detention pending an investigation into (possible) negligence,” it says in a statement.
“The Public Prosecution has launched an inquiry to determine the circumstances around contractual procedures for the printing of textbooks and the reasons for a shortfall,” it says.
A number of other officials are wanted for questioning, including the minister for planning, the statement adds.
Since the times of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan authorities have had a budget earmarked to provide free textbooks to each student at the start of the school year in September.
However many of this year’s books have yet to be delivered, forcing students to make full photocopies from just a handful of books per class. Many students had still not been supplied with their books by mid-December.
Before Megarief was arrested, the education ministry had blamed the delay on the complex process of reunifying Libya’s curriculum, after a key east-west schism in 2014 produced different versions.
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