By ANTARA News,
Tripoli : Libya does not need lessons on human rights, Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam said early Saturday at a joint news conference with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“We care about our own people,” the minister said. “We do need not anybody to come put pressure on us or give us lectures.”
Rice said she had raised during talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi the case of jailed dissident Fathi al-Jahmi, 66, whose brother lives in exile in Boston.
Jahmi has been held since 2004 after having criticised Kadhafi`s government and having made public calls for the institution of democracy in the North African state.
“It is important to have dialogue, including on issues of human rights,” Rice said at the news conference after her talks with Kadhafi, who seized power in September 1969 in a coup that toppled the elderly King Idriss.
“As this relationship (between Libya and the US) goes forward and deepens it will continue to be important for us to have transparency and to talk about these issues in a respectful way,” Rice said.
Shalgam, however, clearly angry at the question raised at the news conference, said Jahmi had been justly tried and sentenced.
He said the dissident was currently receiving treatment in a private clinic.
“The principles of human rights are different in Libya and the United States,” the minister said.