Updated 9.15am with Ian Borg comment

Malta’s embassy in Tripoli has denied media reports that Libya’s prime minister travelled to Malta by private jet in the past days.

In a statement on social media, the Maltese Embassy in Tripoli said “there were no senior Libyan officials who landed by plane in Malta through diplomatic authorisation over the last few days.

“It is a shame to spread such misinformation and try to detract from the good relations that have always been cultivated between the Maltese and Libyan people,” the embassy said.

Government sources who spoke to Times of Malta denied that Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah had made any request to fly to Malta or that the Libyan prime minister had landed in the country.

The Embassy's denial. Photo: Facebook

The embassy in Tripoli was responding to reports in Libyan media outlets which implied that Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah had fled the country and landed in Malta. 

Libya News Today, a social media-focused news outlet, published a photo of a private plane on Facebook on Friday evening, with the caption ‘A private plane carrying, Libya Prime Minister and the Minister of Communications to Malta’.

Maltese ambassador to Libya Charles Saliba responded to the post with the comment “this news is fake”. The embassy subsequently issued a formal denial through its own Facebook page.

“Media outlets in Libya, including Libya News Today, have issued fake news about Malta,” the embassy said.

Libya has erupted into violence in the past few days as armed groups engaged in open fighting in capital Tripoli. Dozens of Maltese were evacuated from the country as fighting intensified this week.

On Friday, a police officer was killed in what the UN-backed Libyan government said was an attempted assault on the office of the prime minister.

Earlier Friday, thousands of protesters had gathered in Tripoli to demand Dbeibah’s resignation. After the demonstration, local media reported the resignation of six ministers and deputy ministers from the government, two of whom confirmed their departure in a video.

The country is split between Dbeibah’s government and a rival administration in the east controlled by the family of military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

No plans to close Tripoli embassy - for now

When contacted, Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg echoed the embassy's denial of Libyan media reports.

The minister declined to speculate when asked if Malta would accept an eventual request by Dbeibah to land in Malta.

“Should Malta receive such requests they would be dealt with through the established chain of consultations,”  he said. “Our primary aim is to continue to contribute towards peace and stability in Libya, whilst at the same time protecting the well-being of Maltese that reside in Libya.”

Borg said there were no plans at this time to evacuate Malta’s embassy in Tripoli, as it deems having a diplomatic presence in the country to be of “high importance”. That could change, he acknowledged, based on periodic security assessments.