LONDON (Reuters) – Libya’s sovereign wealth fund said there were no remaining asset “seizures” on it in Belgium after a Brussels Court of Appeal ruled to lift a long-imposed freeze of its funds in Euroclear Bank.
“With this decision there are no longer any seizures on the LIA’s assets in the Kingdom of Belgium,” the Libyan Investment Authority said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
The statement said the seizures had been in place since 2017. Neither Belgium court nor Euroclear immediately responded to requests for comment.
Muammar Gaddafi established the LIA in 2006 to manage the North African nation’s oil wealth, and it has been subject to a United Nations asset freeze since the 2011 revolution that toppled Gaddafi. The Belgium assets remain under that freeze.
Earlier this month, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that would allow the LIA to invest its frozen assets in fixed income instruments, under the condition that those instruments and the income from them would remain frozen.
LIA last year petitioned for a thaw in the asset freeze. In its statement, it said the UN decision would enable it to “preserve them from erosion risks, optimise their market value and ensure their sustainable grow(th).”
(Reporting by Libby George and Marc Jones in London. Additional reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout in Brussels. Editing by Nick Zieminski)
