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Libya's former prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi was tortured and beaten on his forced return to Tripoli from Tunisia, his lawyer has claimed. Marcel Ceccaldi, a French lawyer, said that Mahmoudi had been badly beaten by Libyan security officers and left with broken ribs and a punctured lung. "According to the information I have, it seems that he has been beaten. He is in hospital, under guard," The Guardian quoted Ceccaldi, as saying. Mahmoudi served as Muammar Gaddafi's prime minister from March 2006, till he fled to Tunisia in August 2011. He was reportedly handed over to Libyan officials in Tunis on Sunday and flown by helicopter to a Libyan prison. Ceccaldi claimed that Libyan Government's assurances to offer Mahmoudi a fair trail were breached within hours of his arrival in Libya. He alleges that his client was moved to a detention facility at Tripoli's Mitiga military airport where the beating took place. According to the paper, Libya's Government has, however, denied torture had taken place. Tripoli officials said reports of Mahmoudi being wounded were rumours, amounting to a 'naked lie'. "We would like to say it's wrong, a naked lie ... that he was attacked and is in a sort of coma. Al-Bagdadi al-Mahmoudi is in good health and he is in need of nothing, god willing," the paper quoted Libyan government spokesman, Nassar el-Manaa, as saying.

Ex-Libyan PM Mahmoudi tortured on return