Libya Says Islamist Militant Hanged Self In Jail

It was Libya`s first official reaction since Libyan Ali Mohamed Abdelaziz al Fakhiri was reported to have killed himself on May 9.

Leading Libyan dissident Fathi al-Jahmi, detained by Tripoli since 2002, died on Thursday in a Jordanian medical center where he was taken this month for emergency treatment, his U.S.-based brother said.

"The Libyans have Fathi's blood on their hands," said his younger brother, Mohamed al-Jahmi, who lives near Boston.

Jahmi, whose case had become an irritant in U.S.-Libyan relations, arrived at the Amman hospital in a coma on May 5 and never recovered. He died at 9 a.m. local time in Amman, his brother said.

The United States, which has ended its major economic sanctions on Libya and dropped the oil-producing nation from a State Department blacklist for "state sponsors of terrorism," has pushed for years for Libya to free Jahmi.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly expressed sadness at Jahmi's death and "regret that his poor state of health ... did not allow him to fully recover" in Jordan but voiced no criticism of Libya for its long detainment of the activist.

The group Physicians for Human Rights demanded an independent autopsy to determine the cause and circumstances leading up to his death. Jahmi suffered from a heart condition, hypertension and diabetes.

"He did not get the kind of medical attention he needed," said Susannah Sorkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, whose doctors saw Jahmi in March last year. "He was a courageous man who died fighting for democracy," she added.

Mohamed al-Jahmi accused the Libyan authorities of providing substandard medical care to the former provincial governor, who was detained in a Tripoli medical center before being evacuated to Jordan.

"Fathi did not reach this way without being deprived of medical care. He got where he is because of torture and isolation," his brother said.

CRITICIZED GADDAFI

Jahmi was first arrested in 2002 after he criticized Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and called for open elections, a free press and the release of political prisoners.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden took a special interest in Jahmi and spoke to Gaddafi about him during a 2004 meeting in Libya. Biden was then a U.S. senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Jahmi was released after Biden's appeal but re-arrested in March 2004 after repeating his criticism of the Libyan leader.

The dissident's brother said Libya's embassy had controlled access to him while he was in Jordan and that the director of the Arab Medical Center in Amman was told to report the names of all visitors.

"The Libyans seem to be choreographing everything and every person who has tried to visit Fathi was told the excuse that the family does not want visitors," said Mohamed al-Jahmi.

He did not know whether his brother's body had been sent back to Libya but was told the Libyans were "making attempts to get the body out of Jordan quickly."

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised the case with Libya's leader when she visited Tripoli last September, the first top U.S. diplomat to go there in half a century.

After meeting the Libyan leader's son, Mutassim Gaddafi, last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Jahmi's case was discussed with him during his meetings with State Department officials when he was in Washington.