Osama Ben Zaghlam, a Libyan from Tripoli who eyes the Tripoli administration with deep suspicion. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Osama Ben Zaghlam is from Tripoli, but there is no love lost between him and Mahdi Al-Harati, the man elected mayor of the Libyan capital.

Mr Zaghlam, who lives in Malta, insists the Tripoli mayor, a former rebel leader during the revolution that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, cannot be trusted.

He indicates a You Tube video which shows Mr al-Harati standing in the middle of what appears to be a dusty square, surrounded by brand new orange-and-black pick-up trucks with fighters on board.

“This was taken in Syria and most of those fighters are young Libyans,” Mr Zaghlam says. He also points towards a black flag and its white Arabic script, which resembles the flag used by the Islamic State (known as Isis).

It is not an Isis flag, but Mr al-Harati led a group of fighters in Syria in 2012 when he joined the revolution against President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Zaghlam uses the video to illustrate what he says is Mr al-Harati’s links to Islamic militants.

Mr Al-Harati led the Libyan brigade that overtook Tripoli as the Gaddafi regime crumbled in the summer of 2011. Last year, Mr al-Harati, an Irish citizen, was elected mayor.

He supports the Salvation government based in Tripoli, which has created a parallel administration to the internationally recognised government in Tobruk.

A frequent visitor to Malta, Mr al-Harati was interviewed by this newspaper earlier this month, when he appealed against EU plans to attack people smugglers by bombing boats inside Libya.

But Mr Zaghlam does not trust the man and insists the militias that still control Tripoli have stifled freedom. He says that the UN should not insist on the formation of a Libyan national unity government that would include the Tripoli administration.

The Tripoli administration is run by people who support terrorists

“The Tripoli administration is run by people who support Isis. Isis is not Islam, it is a new religion that is using Islam,” he says.

The UN and the West should support the Tobruk government and the army led by Khalifa Haftar, a general.

The general last year launched an offensive against Islamic militants, drawing no distinction between the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups like Isis.

Mr Zaghlam defends the general’s indiscriminate targeting of Islamists, saying Libya may need a transition period of five years under the army’s rule until the ropes of democracy are learnt.

He says Tripoli has to be liberated from people like Mr al-Harati.

“We fought against Gaddafi to give Libya freedom and we now have to ensure my country remains free.”