Gaddafi’s wife, daughter in Tunisia, says source

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi wife and daughter have fled for Tunisia, a Tunisian security source told Reuters.

As quoted by Arabic television station, Tunisian officials said that Safia Gaddafi and her daughter Aisha would not be allowed in the country because they were on U.N. sanctions list.

However, Safiya Gaddafi and her daughter Aisha crossed into Tunisia borders with a Libyan delegation on May 14, Tunisian security sources said.

The mother and daughter are currently staying in a refugee center on the island of Djerba near the Libyan border.

Al Jazeera quoted a ministry spokesman saying that Tunisia would arrest members of the Gaddafi family because they were on U.N. sanction list.

“The women were in Djerba to accompany Aisha's husband, who had been injured in the Libyan conflict, and was seeking treatment in Tunisia,” a Libyan opposition source told Reuters.

Since the revolt, Aisha Gaddafi has made several public appearances supporting her father, attacking the insurgency and Western powers trying to overthrow him.

A month ago, she appeared live in a broadcast on Libyan state television and addressed cheering crowds of supporters.

Talk about Gaddafi stepping down is an insult because Gaddafi is not in Libya, but in the hearts of all Libyans, she said.

On Tuesday, Tunisian security source said the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation, Shokri Ghanem, had defected and fled to Tunisia. Ghanem would be the most senior Libyan official to defect.