Libya's top prosecutor, Abdul-Rahman al-Abbar, has followed other officials in the troubled country and resigned to join the opposition against the long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Al Arabiya news channel said on Friday.
"I announce for certain the submission of my resignation from the position of prosecutor general in Libya and announce my joining the will of the Libyan people as represented by the February 17 revolution of the youth," al-Abbar told Al Arabiya.
Protests against the 42-year rule of Col. Muammar Gaddafi began on February 15 and have left at least 2,000 people dead, according to media and human rights organizations. Foreigners are being urgently evacuated, and Libyan authorities are threatening more brutality against protesters.
Al-Abbar's resignation came after Interior Minister Abdul Fattah Younis al Abidi and Justice Minister Mustafa Muhammad Abd-al-Jalil announced their resignations on Thursday. Libyan embassy diplomats in other countries have also stepped down in disagreement with Gaddafi's violent orders to crush protesters.
The dictator's cousin and close aide, Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, defected to Egypt on Thursday in protest against the brutal treatment of demonstrators.
Iran's Press TV channel said on Friday that Gaddafi's son, Saif Al Arab, had joined the anti-government protests in rebellious Benghazi in northeast Libya. German media said the 28-year-old Al Arab, a student at a university in Munich, had fled Germany leaving about 900,000 euros of debt behind.
The 27-nation European Union is considering sanctions against Gaddafi and his entourage, said Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton.
She said sanctions would include a ban on entry into EU countries and freezing assets in Europe. Kocijancic said EU countries had already suspended arms sales to Libya, but it did not mean introducing an embargo on arms supplies.
Ashton's spokesperson declined to respond whether the EU would ban energy imports from Libya, a leading global oil producer.
MOSCOW, February 25 (RIA Novosti)
