20110510
reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - A cousin of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi denied on Tuesday a report that the Egyptian authorities had placed him under house arrest in Cairo.

On Sunday, the rebel Brnieq website, citing a reliable source, said Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam Benghazi was in the Cairo district of Nasr City and the authorities planned to seize his funds and property and deport him to Benghazi.

"Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam denied what was mentioned in Brnieq, published in Benghazi, that he was under forced detention in his office," Gaddaf al-Dam said a faxed statement.

"He stressed that there is no truth to this information and that since his resignation at the start of the events he was no longer coordinator for Libyan-Egyptian relations," the statement said.

Gaddaf al-Dam, a rarely-seen figure with a strong likeness to Gaddafi, was born in Egypt to a Libyan father and an Egyptian mother and has spent many years acting as a go-between for Cairo and Tripoli.