Libya Ex-Diplomat Held in Rome Plot on U.S. Envoy

Police have arrested a former Libyan diplomat in connection with an alleged plot to shoot the U.S. Ambassador to Italy last year, an aide to Premier Bettino Craxi said today.

The spokesman, Antonio Ghirelli, said Arebi Mohammed Fituri, 47, of Tripoli was taken into custody in Rome on Sunday night.

Ghirelli confirmed that the Rome prosecutor’s office also has ordered the arrest of another former Libyan diplomat, Mussbah Mahmud Werfalli, 39, who was expelled from Italy last year. The ANSA news agency said Werfalli left Italy in April, 1985.

Illegal Arms Possession

The two men were charged with illegal possession of arms, Ghirelli said.

Ghirelli said Werfalli was a political counselor and Fituri an administrative clerk at the Libyan Embassy when the plot against Ambassador Maxwell Rabb was discovered.

They both left Italy after Werfalli was ordered expelled and Fituri “was allowed to leave,” Ghirelli said.

Asked why the two were not arrested last year, Ghirelli said diplomats and embassy employees are “normally not arrested, but expelled.”

More Evidence

But he indicated more evidence has surfaced since their departure that now warranted their arrests. He did not elaborate.

ANSA, quoting unidentified sources, said the two Libyans allegedly furnished a .38-caliber pistol to another Libyan, Rageb Hammouda Daghugh, to attack American, Saudi and Egyptian ambassadors in Rome.

ANSA said Daghugh was arrested in Rome on Feb. 5, 1985. Later ANSA said Daghugh was released on provisional liberty after the expiration of the time that suspects are allowed to be kept in preventive custody. ANSA said his whereabouts are unknown.