Libya’s new Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq. Photo: Reuters

The election of Ahmed Maiteeq as Libya’s new Prime Minister was conducted in violation of the country’s temporary constitution, a prosecutor told the Supreme Constitutional Court yesterday.

The North African country is struggling with a political crisis as outgoing premier Abdullah al-Thinni has refused to hand over power to Maiteeq who was elected by Parliament in a chaotic vote last month. Amid disarray in Tripoli there is conflict between rival groups across the country.

Maiteeq’s lawyers argued, during a constitutional court session broadcast live on television, that the election was legitimate. An official of the prosecutor’s office, however, said it violated the Constitution in principle.

The court issued no ruling and adjourned the session until Monday, officials said.

Parliament elected Maiteeq as new Prime Minister in a chaotic vote which has been disputed by some lawmakers and officials who said it lacked a quorum.

Thinni had resigned in April but has said he received conflicting orders from Libya’s divided Parliament over the legitimacy of Maiteeq’s election and would continue in his post until courts resolved the dispute.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is suspending operations in Libya while it investigates the killing of a staff member there, a spokesman said yesterday.

Michael Greub, the Swiss head of a sub-delegation of the ICRC, was shot in the central coastal town of Sirte on Wednesday as he left a meeting with two colleagues in an unmarked car.

Anarchy is spreading in the North African oil-producing country where violence and political infighting have reigned since the 2011 uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, and militias operate at will, beyond central government authority.

“It’s a bit difficult to say if the organisation was targeted or our colleague because he was a Westerner. We just need to pause the operation,” ICRC spokesman Wolde-Gabriel Saugeron said in Geneva.

Red Cross is suspending operations in Libya as it investigates the killing of staff member there

The humanitarian agency has more than 160 people in the country, bringing aid to people who have been wounded, displaced or traumatised by conflict, and supporting the work of volunteers and ambulances belonging to the Libyan Red Crescent.

Saugeron said it was too early to say what the agency might do in the longer term.

He dismissed as “speculation” the suggestion that the ICRC could pull out of Libya altogether. He said there were a “range of possibilities” if it felt under threat of further attacks, but hoped it could resume operations as soon as possible.

Gunmen also fired a grenade at the Prime Minister’s office and tried to kill a renegade general in attacks on Wednesday.