"Mr Mahmudi has received written deaths, from Libyans, and asked for authorisation from the court not to leave Mornaguia", a prison near Tunis where he is being held, his attorney Mabrouk Kourchid told AFP.
A Tunisian appeals court earlier this month approved Mahmudi's extradition to Libya, a ruling that Mahmudi is battling on the grounds that he has formally applied for refugee status.
Kourchid said today's hearing was merely a formality and Mahmudi's absence was of no significance.
The 70-year-old Mahmudi, prime minister until the final days of the regime of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested on September 21 on Tunisia's southwestern border with Algeria and jailed for illegal entry.
(Published 25 November 2011, 12:50 IST)
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