TRIPOLI - A leading Libyan dissident is receiving treatment and his health is improving, a charity headed by a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gathafi said.
In January New York-based Human Rights Watch said 66-year-old Fathi al-Jahmi, urgently needed medical care after almost four years in detention.
The Gathafi International Foundation, chaired by Saif al-Islam, said in a statement its members had visited Jahmi at a medical facility called Tripoli Medical Center.
"Physicians overseeing his treatment have confirmed that he is taking comprehensive medical check-ups, and that his health situation is improving steadily," the statement dated February 24 said. "Al-Jahmi, in his turn, expressed his feeling that his health is improving."
Libyan authorities have said Jahmi is being held for his own protection and because he is "mentally disturbed."
Salah Abdessalem of the Foundation said the opposition figure had been in hospital for the past eight months.
He was being given "all the medical assistance he needs", said Abdessalem.
An AFP journalist who was authorised to visit Jahmi said the patient was in a room of Tripoli General Hospital's cardiology ward.
Smiling but visibly tired, he was circled by his wife and five children. "It's my state of health which concerns me right now. I want to go back to my family home," he said.
"The (Gathafi) Foundation has even proposed for the family to take charge of him and to continue his treatment at the family home but we have not received any response yet," said Abdessalem.
And Dr Abdullah Shiri said Jahmi's condition had improved over the past three months, especially the state of his heart.
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