Amnesty Denounces Arbitrary Detention of Protesters in Libya

Libyans protest at Martyrs' Square in Tripoli, Libya (File photo: Reuters)
Libyans protest at Martyrs' Square in Tripoli, Libya (File photo: Reuters)
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Amnesty Denounces Arbitrary Detention of Protesters in Libya

Libyans protest at Martyrs' Square in Tripoli, Libya (File photo: Reuters)
Libyans protest at Martyrs' Square in Tripoli, Libya (File photo: Reuters)

Amnesty International has condemned the arbitrary detention of nine peaceful protesters and a journalist by an internal security agency in eastern Libya.

“The Internal Security Agency (ISA), a collection of powerful armed groups operating in areas under the control of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), is arbitrarily detaining at least nine peaceful protesters and a journalist incommunicado after they participated in a demonstration in Sirte,” it said in a press release on Tuesday.

On March 19, around 30 people took part in the protest in Sirte, which called on the international community and local authorities to provide compensation for victims of the 2011 NATO airstrikes.

“Examination of three videos of the protest and eyewitness testimony indicate that the protest was peaceful,” the statement read, noting that within the next week, one journalist and at least 10 protesters were seized by armed men, one was released a few days later.

The organization said Ali al-Refawi, a reporter who was covering the protest for Libyan TV channel 218, is among those currently detained. He was arrested by armed men on March 26 and taken to an undisclosed location.

This is the third wave of arrests against residents of Sirte, the hometown of Libya’s former ruler Muammar Gaddafi, since the LAAF takeover in 2020.

Amnesty called on Khalifa Haftar’s LAAF to immediately ensure the release of all those detained simply for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and expression.



Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
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Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert said that the “humanitarian city” that Israel’s defense minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert told the daily, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.

Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, has ordered the military to start drawing up operational plans for construction of the “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, to house initially 600,000 people and eventually the entire Palestinian population, stated the Guardian.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert told he daily, when asked about the plans laid out by Katz last week. Once inside, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries, Katz said.

The “humanitarian city” project is backed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the area Katz envisages for the camp is a sticking point in the faltering negotiations for a ceasefire deal, Israeli media have reported.