Former Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who left the country in March, has returned home to reclaim his premiership.

The Libya Herald reported this morning that Mr Zeidan, who had been sacked by congress in March, gave a television interview in the eastern city of Beida, in which he insisted that he is Libya’s legitimate Prime Minister.

The former Libyan premier had left the country amid allegations of embezzlement. He stopped in Malta on his way to Germany while on his way out.

His name hit the headlines again recently when it was reported that he was in fact, staying here under heavy security at a flat in Xemxija. The government flatly denied it was him insisting that he was last in Malta in March.

It turned out, however, that the man under protection was Libya’s deputy Prime Minister Sadiq Abdulkarim, who had fled the country shortly after an attempt on his life in January.

Mr Zeidan’s return to Libya comes in the wake of a landmark judgment by Libya’s Supreme Court, which ruled last month that the decision by congress to appoint Ahmed Maetig (a politician from Misurata enjoying the confidence of the Muslim Brotherhood) as prime minister following Mr Zeidan’s departure, was illegal.

The ruling was respected by all sides and Abdullah Al-Thinni, who served as Minister of Defence in Zeidan’s government, continued as the serving Prime Minister.

In his interview, Mr Zedan said he wanted the courts to rule that Congress’s decision to fire him had been illegal, insisting he had complete trust in the Libyan justice system. He made no comment on the premiership of Mr Al-Thinni.