In a recent report covering 2021, Human Rights Watch said that Libyan courts are in a restricted position that does not allow them to resolve election disputes, including registration and results. The report published on Friday spoke of the disruption of the Libyan criminal justice system in Some areas because of years of fighting and political division. Judges, prosecutors, and lawyers remained vulnerable to harassment and attacks by armed groups.
The report also monitored that the Ministry of Justice, until last August, was arbitrarily detaining 12,300 people, including women and children, in 27 prisons and other detention facilities recognized by the Interim Government of National Unity, warning of inhumane conditions in prisons in Libya.
In September, the authorities in the West released eight detainees linked to Gaddafi who had been detained since 2011, including Al-Saadi, one of Gaddafi’s sons, who has been detained since 2014 after receiving him from Niger. In 2018, an appeals court in Tripoli acquitted Al-Saadi of all charges, including first-degree murder, but Human Rights Watch noted that he had remained in arbitrary detention and was ill-treated for three years. Also, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2011 for committing “serious crimes” during the 2011 uprising, “is still a fugitive” and Libya is still obligated to extradite him to “The Hague.”
Also, the death of the former head of the Libyan Internal Security Agency, Al-Tuhamy Khaled, was indicated in many reports, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes he allegedly committed in 2011. He died in Cairo in February. It was also reported that Mahmoud Al-Werfalli, a commander associated with the General Command, wanted by the International Criminal Court for “multiple murders” in eastern Libya, was killed in March in Benghazi by unidentified gunmen.
Human Rights Watch said that Marshal Khalifa Haftar is facing three separate lawsuits filed in a district court in Virginia by families claiming that they “have relatives who were killed or tortured by his forces in Libya after 2014”.
The organization referred to the report of the fact-finding mission in Libya in October, which concluded that “several parties to the conflict have violated international humanitarian law and may have committed war crimes.” The mission, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, began its full operation in Libya in June 2020. The Human Rights Council renewed the mission’s mandate for an additional nine months in October so that it can complete its investigations.
With regard to the death penalty, the report referred to the Libyan Penal Code stipulating the death penalty in 30 of its articles, but no executions have been carried out in Libya since 2010, although civil and military courts continued to impose it.
Adapted from Human Rights Watch