Libyan court: government void

Libya's Constitutional Court ordered on Thursday that the internationally recognized parliament be dissolved, deepening the violent divide which has fueled months of fighting in the North African nation.

The court issued the ruling from the capital Tripoli, which is controlled by Islamist militias and their allies. The islamists - mostly from the western city of Misrata - seized the capital in August, forcing out the internationally supported government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani.

The government and the House of Representatives have since fled to the eastern city of Tobruk, with large areas of the country remaining out of their control. "Tripoli is hijacked," Abu-Bakr Baeira, a leading lawmaker in the Tobruk parliament, told the AP news agency: "We don't recognize anything that comes out of it."

"Lawmakers will not recognize a verdict decided under the gun," another Tobruk-based parliamentarian, Issam al-Jehani wrote on Facebook.

Ruling without appeal

The Tobruk-based parliament, dominated by anti-Islamists, is the second elected legislative body since the overthow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. According to the Constitutional Court, the steps taken by the previous parliament that led to the elections and the establishment of the Tobruk legislature were invalid.

The court's decision, which cannot be appealed, was greeted with jubilation and celebratory gunfire in Tripoli, by members of the armed factions who have set up a rival government and reinstated the former parliament, known as the General National Congress (GNC).

The deputy speaker of the GNC predictably greeted the ruling as "a victory for the nation."

"With this decision, it is as if the House of Representatives had never existed," Saleh Makhzum said.

‘Slide into war'

The ruling follows intense clashes between pro-government militias and Islamist fighters in Benghazi that have killed more than 30 people in the past three days, according to Red Cresent medics.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said that the ruling "risks complicating further a picture that is already complicated."

"In Libya ... we support the efforts of the United Nations to prevent a further deterioration of the situation, the slide into civil war,"Gentiloni told a conference in the Italian senate.

The decision is also a problem for the United Nations and European Union, which have been calling for a compromise based on the new parliament's legitimacy.

dj/glb (AP, dpa, Reuters, AFP)