The head of the Libyan-American Alliance, Esam Omeish, has said that the federal Judge in Virginia Court Leonie Brinkema issued a "surprising" decision to halt a series of civil lawsuits brought against Khalifa Haftar in the United States until presidential elections in the country are concluded.

Brinkema's decision came against the background of what she considered political interference by official Libyan parties.

The counsel for Al-Suwayd and Karshini families who are sewing Haftar for alleged crimes in Benghazi failed to deal with the judge by the legal means considered in judicial correspondence, says Omeish.

He added that the judge also considered the correspondence of the Defence and National Security Committee in the House of Representatives in Tobruk a blatant political interference by their request to support legal action in defence of Haftar.

"The decision is unfortunate and surprising. It came due to some administrative and legal errors by representatives of the Government of National Unity (GNU) and the inaccuracy of one of the  plaintiffs' attorneys in his correspondence regarding the second case.”

Omeish confirmed that the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the first and third cases would seek, in cooperation with the legal team of the Libyan-American coalition, to convince the judge of the need for trials to continue and not to halt all cases, regardless of the political situation in Libya.

He stressed that the suspension of the trial might delay the issuance of the final ruling, but it would not prevent the continued demand for criminalizing Khalifa Haftar in other legal circles.