Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Libya’s eastern-based forces of enabling a crackdown on dissidents and of entrenched impunity for deaths in custody and other serious human rights abuses, according to AFP.
Since the 2011 overthrow of ruler Moammar al-Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising, the energy-rich North African country has been wracked by unrest.
It is split between a Tripoli-based government, headed by Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east backed by Khalifa Haftar, whose Libyan National Army (LNA) controls the east and much of the south.
“Since January 2024, heavily armed Internal Security Agency (ISA) agents have arrested without a warrant dozens of people, including women and men in their 70s, from their homes, streets or other public places in areas of eastern and southern Libya,” Amnesty said.
Based on interviews with former detainees, the families of detainees, as well as lawyers, human rights defenders and political activists, the rights group said the detainees were then transferred to ISA-controlled facilities, where they remained arbitrarily detained for months without being allowed to contact their families or lawyers; some were subjected to enforced disappearances for periods reaching 10 months.
It noted that none were brought before civilian judicial authorities, allowed to challenge the legality of their detention, or were formally charged with any offences.
“Two people died in custody in suspicious circumstances in April and July while in ISA-controlled detention centers in Benghazi and Ajdabiya,” Amnesty said, adding that no independent and impartial criminal investigations have been carried out into their deaths and no one has been held accountable.
“The spike in arbitrary detentions and deaths in custody in recent months highlights how the existing culture of impunity has empowered armed groups to violate detainees’ right to life without fearing any consequences,” said Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International’s Libya Researcher.
“These deaths in custody add to the catalogue of horrors committed by the ISA against those who dare to express views critical of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces,” he added.
Amnesty called on the GNU and LAAF, as the de facto authorities in eastern and southern Libya, to ensure the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
“The LAAF must also suspend from positions of power ISA commanders and members reasonably suspected of crimes under international law and serious human rights violations, pending independent and impartial criminal investigations, including into the causes and circumstances of the deaths in custody, and, where sufficient evidence exists, prosecute them in fair proceedings in front of civilian courts,” it added.
