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UAE denies "spying" incident in Libya: report

Xinhua, November 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

The United Arab Emirates on Thursday strongly denied claims by Islamist groups in Libya that an Emirati national was arrested for "spying" in the North African country, Dubai daily Gulf News reported.

The Gulf News report said the Islamist faction in Libya's militia-held capital Tripoli claimed to have detain a UAE national on Nov. 5 who was linked to Dubai police.

Dubai Police Chief Major General Khamis Mattar Al-Mazeina slammed the allegation as "false and far away from truth" on social media.

He said that the arrested suspect's relation with the police had ended "five years ago." The suspect had been dismissed from military service for his involvement in a moral case, he pointed out.

Gulf News also quoted official sources as saying the Emirati national was a UAE businessman who had been visiting Libya during the past several years for his own commercial purposes.

He was not in a diplomatic or security mission in the name of the UAE, said the report.

The report added that the aim of the arrest was to put pressure on and "to blackmail" the UAE, and the Gulf state would not succumb to any pressures and blackmail.

The suspect was detained and remained in custody for being interrogated.

The Emirati's arrest came as U.S. officials last year said the UAE carried out some airstrikes against Islamist militias in Libya, on which the Emirates refused to comment.

Libya has had two administrations since August 2014, when Islamist-backed insurgents occupied Tripoli.

The internationally recognised government, which the UAE support, had escaped to the far eastern city of Tobruk. Endit