Libyan rebels arrest Hala Misrati

Weapon in hand, Misrati issues on-air threat to rebels. Tripoli - Arabstoday Controversial pro-Gaddafi TV presenter Hala Al Misrati was arrested when Libyan rebels took over the Libyan TV Head Quarters. Misrati was well known for her own daily TV show where snubbed, criticized and made fun of Libyan rebels while being blindly loyal to and praising Muammar Gaddafi. Misrati had made rebels and anti-Gaddafi people very angry after appearing on her show in possession of a gun while waving it around and threatening rebels to martyr for Gaddafi if they were to enter the TV Head Quarters. "With this weapon, I either kill or die today," she said, according to a translation aired by Al Jazeera English. "You will not take al-Libiyah channel. You won't take Jamahiriyah channel, Shababiyah channel, Tripoli or all of Libya, and even those without a weapon are willing to be a shield in order to protect their colleagues at this channel. We are willing to become martyrs." The controversial presenter had made very strange comments on a daily basis through her show; in one episode she said that the UN Security Council's decision to fly to Libya is not illegitimate because adoption is forbidden in Islam. In another episode, she displayed a video clip of a sand storm behind a rebels’ truck, which she believed was a sign that God is with Gaddafi against the rebels. Misrati appeared on TV with a weapon was not the first of its kind, as another TV presenter appeared on Libyan TV dressed in traditional Libyan costume and holding a machinegun in his hand as he said: “who can arm his nation like this? Is there a leader in the world who has given their nation weapons without them being loyal to him?” he then added: “I swear to you my great leader that I would fight to you till my last breath, bullet, child, baby and drop of blood.” Misrati is now in rebels’ hands, who have set up a Facebook page demanding that she is trialed for utmost betrayal, falsely assuming things related to God, the issuance of illegitimate fatwas, libel and defamation, and the exploitation of her position in media in the torture of rebels’ psychologically and mentally. Misrati has become well-known in and outside Libya for making bombastic on-air pronouncements against those who have expressed opposition to Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Among her previous claims is that "Swine Jazeera" routinely bombed its own offices and murdered its own employees. She was also a prominent participant in the smear campaign against the Libyan student Iman al-Obeidi, who attracted international attention in March after telling journalists that she had been gang-raped by Gaddafi's soldiers. Misrati described al-Obeidi as a "liar" and a "prostitute" who had shed "fake tears" in order to discredit the regime.