Egypt’s ministry of foreign affairs said on Sunday 2/9/2012 that Libya is still detaining 48 Egyptian fishermen due to delayed in payment of fines for illegal fishing.

Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Amr Roshdi expressed astonishment over the boats’ owners request asking the consulate to pay the fines itself noting that the consulate exerted efforts to release the boats which already entered the territorial waters of Libya.

He added that the consulate managed to release 16 fishing boats in 2011 although all of them violated the territorial waters of Libya.

2012 AllAfrica