Charges brought by South African prosecutors against 95 Libyans arrested on suspicion of receiving training at an unapproved military camp have been dropped.<\/p>\n
The case was withdrawn for lack of sufficient evidence, said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Monica Nyuswa.<\/p>\n
The men were only charged with breaching South Africa’s immigration laws and will be deported to their home country.<\/p>\n
The Home Affairs department said in a statement it would ensure “the deportations are conducted swiftly”.<\/p>\n
One of the men’s lawyers, Nico du Plessis, told Associated Press the group was “happy” the charges had been dropped.<\/p>\n
The men have only been charged with breaching South Africa’s immigration laws and will be deported to their home country.<\/p>\n
The Home Affairs department said in a statement it would ensure “the deportations are conducted swiftly”.<\/p>\n
One of the men’s lawyers, Nico du Plessis, told Associated Press the group was “happy” the charges had been dropped.<\/p>\n
The group is expected to be deported to Benghazi, Libya’s second city.<\/p>\n
Since the overthrow and assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the country has suffered from chronic insecurity.<\/p>\n
The Libyans were arrested in July after South African police raided a farm in White River, a small town in the northern province of Mpumalanga.<\/p>\n
At the time of the arrest, a police spokesman said the men had \u201cmisrepresented themselves\u201d in their visa applications, claiming they were to train as security guards.<\/p>\n
Registered firearms and military tents were found in the camp, along with cocaine and cannabis.<\/p>\n
The camp was originally registered as a training site for a private security company but appears to have been converted, a second police spokesman, Donald Mdhluli, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n
Mdhluli said the owner of the security company was a South African national and police were investigating whether he had permission to run the site as a military-style camp.<\/p>\n
Even if the men were deported, there will still be an investigation into the owners of the farm.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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