Political controversy has always aroused over military operations in Libya, as well as the map of deployment for both Libyan National Army forces and the militias supporting Government of National Accord.
However, the more ambiguous and less intrusive topic among all is how the Muslim Brotherhood funds the military operations launched by the militias against the Libyan army, especially with increasing the number of mercenaries that fight alongside the militias, where the salary of each reached $2000 according to several reports.
Turkey might be the main supporter, militarily and politically, of the Accord Government linked to the Brotherhood, but it absolutely can’t fund such operations according to analysts, and this is for two reasons:
First: the deteriorated Turkish economy and the low exchange rates of the Turkish lira against the dollar.
Second: The statements of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which he talked about economic interests in Libya, and demanded sums due to Turkish companies that were operating in Libya during the reign of Muammar al-Gaddafi.
In the light of all these events, we find that the Central Bank is one of the most significant official Libyan entities that the Brotherhood attempted to control, having all the cash reserves and the Libyan oil revenue.
And this is not recent, as the head of the Accord Government Fayez al-Sarraj issued a decision in 2018 granting Islamic streams great domination in the management board of the Libyan Investment Authority and other vital institutions in the country such as the central bank and the National Oil Corporation, which was considered as an explicit attempt by the Brotherhood to control the state’s financial institutions.
“The Muslim Brotherhood spent 2 billion in one day on the militias, while the Libyans were dying in front of the banks,” General Ahmad al-Mismari, the spokesman of the Libyan National army said in press statements on Muslim Brotherhood funding, referring to the Brotherhood’s role in plundering the Libyan money.
Al-Mismari revealed that the Brotherhood controls the Bank of Libya, and spends billions in the militias, especially that the factions’ leaders who support Turkey’s intervention in Libya have received millions as financial rewards.
Additionally, al-Mismari affirmed that more than 50 b Libyan dinars were smuggled from Libya to Turkey that shelters the leaders of terrorism, according to his expression. “The Border Demarcation agreement has disadvantaged Libya and pushed it through a battle that has no income.
Simultaneously, the chairman of the liquidity committee in the Libyan Central Bank in al-Bayda, Ramzi Agha, confirmed that the Central Bank in Tripoli is controlled by the Brotherhood’s arms in Libya, indicating that the Libyan money and savings go to finance the armed militias and foreign mercenaries.
In his accusations, Agha named the Brotherhood figures who control the central bank, “The Muslim Brotherhood in Libya attempt to control the Central Bank in Tripoli by appointing his loyalists in senior positions and as leaders in the management board to finance its groups and militias and support its regional allies,” Agha said to Alarabyia Net news website.
“Among these names is Fathi Ayoub, a leader in the Justice and Construction Party, who occupies the position of the Secretary-General of the bank’s board of management; and Tareq al-Maqrif, one of the most prominent Brotherhood leaders who control the bank, and he is now a member of the board,” Agha added.
Ali Torfaya, a writer specialized in the Libyan affair affirmed that there is a systematic process of plundering and stealing the wealth of the Libyan people in collusion with the terrorist group of Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey.
In a televised interview on the Egyptian Extra News broadcaster, Torfaya said: “The looted money is transferred through fake bank credits that claim importing certain goods, but these claims are just a lie and a way for stealing the money.”
He pointed out that the central bank is now controlled by the Brotherhood and their affiliated militias; stressing that oil revenue is deposited in the central bank by figures affiliated to the Brotherhood that controls and steals this money.
He indicated that the amount of $ 4 billion was deposited in the Turkish Central Bank without any interest and this deposit cannot be withdrawn before four years.