Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Libya.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Libya. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Libya U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/libya/
[accessed 27 July
2021] DISAPPEARANCE GNA and LNA-aligned
armed groups, other nonstate armed groups, criminal
gangs, and tribal groups committed an unknown number of forced disappearances
(see section 1.g.). Due to its limited capacity, the GNA made few effective
efforts to prevent, investigate, or penalize forced disappearances. Libyan and
international human rights organizations reported that dozens of civil society
activists, politicians, judges, and journalists have been forcibly
disappeared by both western and eastern security services or armed groups and
detained for making comments or pursuing activities perceived as being
disloyal to the GNA or LNA. Many disappearances
that occurred during the Qadhafi regime, the 2011
revolution, and the postrevolutionary period
remained uninvestigated. TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT International and
Libyan human rights organizations noted that the GNA-aligned Special
Deterrence Force and Nawasi Brigade conducted
summary executions, acts of torture, and other abuses at official prisons and
unofficial interrogation facilities. An unknown number
of other refugees and migrants were held in extralegal detention facilities,
such as smugglers’ camps, controlled by criminal and nonstate
armed groups. Persons held in these facilities were routinely tortured and
abused, including being subjected to arbitrary killings, rape and sexual
violence, beatings, forced labor, and deprivation of food and water according
to dozens of testimonies shared with international aid agencies and human
rights groups. In January, for example, UNSMIL interviewed 32 migrants who
had been arbitrarily detained and subjected to torture or rape for ransom by nonstate criminal groups and state officials, including
DCIM and Coast Guard employees. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/libya/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 15 May
2020] F2. DOES
DUE PROCESS PREVAIL IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL MATTERS? Since the 2011
revolution, the right of citizens to a fair trial and due process has been
challenged by the continued interference of armed groups and inability to
access lawyers and court documents. Militias and semiofficial security forces
regularly engage in arbitrary arrests, detentions, and intimidation with
impunity. Thousands of individuals remain in custody without any formal trial
or sentencing. ICC Prosecutor Says
War Crimes Including Torture Committed In Libya Riya Baibhawi, Republic World, 6 May 2020 [accessed 7 May
2020] Bensouda highlighted that
there were “grave and persistent” arbitrary detentions and mistreatments of
migrants and refugees who were at risk of torture, murder and various forms
of sexual violence. The top prosecutor said that former detainees had
reported "brutal methods of torture” while many others have died from
their injuries or lack of medical care. She also
highlighted that there was a surge in numbers of “enforced disappearance”.
Adding that these illegal disappearances, when targeted against prominent
members of the society like journalists and human rights defenders, sent a
strong message that “voices of dissent should not be tolerated” and causes
“grave consequences” for both individuals and society. Libya: 85 percent
of migrants subjected to torture Agenzia Nazionale
Stampa Associata (Italian news agency) ANSA, 20
March 2020 www.infomigrants.net/en/post/23580/libya-85-percent-of-migrants-subjected-to-torture [accessed 7 April
2020] A report by the
organization Doctors for Human Rights has found that 85% of migrants and
refugees who reached Italy from Libya had been subjected to torture in the African
country. Doctors for Human
Rights (MEDU) released a report titled "The Torture Factory" on
Tuesday. The organization gathered accounts from more than 3,000 migrants and
refugees who had reached Italy from Libya between 2014 and 2020
. They found that 85%
of those migrants and refugees had been subjected to "torture, violence,
and inhumane and degrading treatment" in Libya. Two-thirds had
reportedly been detained. Almost 50% had been kidnapped or nearly died. Nine out
of ten said they had watched someone die, be killed, or tortured. "A high number
of those interviewed said they were subjected to forced labor or conditions
of slavery for months or years," according to the reports. Widespread torture
and rape documented in Libya's refugee camps Nermin Ismail, Deutsche Welle DW, 26 March 2019 www.dw.com/en/widespread-torture-and-rape-documented-in-libyas-refugee-camps/a-48070588 [accessed 20 May
2019] An increasing
number of refugees are being tortured and raped in Libya, a new study has
found. The perpetrators, motivated by greed, sadism and the desire for power,
include local European Union partners. The details of the
torture methods are difficult to imagine. Chynoweth called the intensity and
methods of sexual violence shocking. Men and women are forced to rape others,
penises are cut off, and women are abused and raped until they bleed to
death. Boys have to rape their sisters. "If someone had told me this
before, I would never have believed it. You can only believe it if you have
seen it with your own eyes," reported a survivor from Gambia. When gruesome
doesn't do the word 'torture' justice in Libya Ghaith Alsanusi,
TRT World, 26 April 2019 www.trtworld.com/opinion/when-gruesome-doesn-t-do-the-word-torture-justice-in-libya-26188 [accessed 12 May
2019] A leaked recording
of the voice of the former head of Gernada prison
reveals the extent of the cruelty and degradation. “They are forced to
swim in sewage, with no beds to sleep on and no clothes to wear,” he is heard
saying. The former detainee,
who chose to remain anonymous, said prisoners are subject to psychological
and sexual abuse and are forced to walk on shattered glass blindfolded, are
pushed down the stairs, kicked in the genitals and hit with pipes, as well as
have their hair pulled and their hands tied up. MSF
concerned about underestimation of torture in Libya Agenzia Nazionale
Stampa Associata ANSA, Italian news agency, 2 July
2018 www.infomigrants.net/en/post/10339/msf-concerned-about-underestimation-of-torture-in-libya [accessed 4 July
2018] The Doctors without
Borders (MSF) reports that the majority of patients in its center for
survivors of tortures and ill treatment are migrants, including minors, and
expresses concern at how the incidence of torture in Libya is underestimated. "Despite being
contrary to international law, torture, ill treatment and abuse are still
being used in many countries around the world and the global medical
community is largely unprepared to identify survivors of these horrible
practices amongst its patients," writes MSF, recalling how "the
majority of patients at its rehabilitation centres
for the survivors of torture and inhumane and degrading treatment are
refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, including unaccompanied foreign
minors". 950 people treated
in 2018 - "Many
of the people we treat in Rome have come through Libya where they were
tortured and ill-treated. Armed
groups control Libyan prisons, torture rampant: UN report UN High Commissioner
for Refugees UNHCR, Geneva, 11 April 2018 [accessed 15 April
2018] The report said many
detainees have been held without charge or trial since the 2011 revolution
that overthrew former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. "Torture and
ill-treatment are systematic in detention facilities across Libya,
particularly in the initial period of detention and during
interrogations," the UN said. Methods include
beatings with metal bars, flogging, and electronic shocks, it said in the
report based on interviews, prison visits, legal and forensic records, and
photographic and video evidence. Executions,
Torture and Slave Markets Persist in Libya: U.N. Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters, Geneva, 21 March 2018 www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-03-21/executions-torture-and-slave-markets-persist-in-libya-un [accessed 25 March
2018] Libyans and migrants
are often held incommunicado in arbitrary detention in appalling conditions,
and reports persist of captured migrants being bought and sold on "open
slave markets", it said in a report to the Human Rights Council. "Extrajudicial
and unlawful killings are rampant," Andrew Gilmour, U.N. Assistant
Secretary-General for Human Rights, told the Geneva forum. A video emerged on
Jan 24 purportedly showing a special forces field commander Mahmoud al-Werfalli shooting 10 blindfolded men kneeling with their
hands tied behind their back, he said. Reuters could not independently
confirm the gunman's identity. 80
percent migrants treated by Rome clinic are torture victims African Courier, 11
December 2017 www.theafricancourier.de/migration/80-percent-migrants-treated-by-rome-clinic-are-torture-victims/ [accessed 13
December 2017] www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42318508 [accessed 13
December 2017] Some 80 percent of
migrants assisted in 2017 by the MEDU mobile clinic in Rome say had they
suffered torture, abuse, serious deprivation, sexual violence or enslavement.
Most of the mistreatment happened in Libya. The most alarming
figure is ”the high number of victims of torture and abuse: over 80 percent
of those examined said that they had suffered torture, abuse, serious
deprivation, sexual violence or enslavement, most of which took place in
official or unofficial detention centres in Libya.
This was also the case with 17 or the 47 unaccompanied minors examined”, it
said. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] LIBYA ARBITRARY DETENTION,
TORTURE, AND DEATHS IN CUSTODY - The Justice Ministry held approximately
6,100 detainees in 26 prisons, mostly under the nominal authority of the
Judicial Police. Only 10 percent of those held had been sentenced, and the
rest remained held in pre-charge detention. In addition, the Interior and
Defense Ministries continued to hold undisclosed numbers of detainees, while
many militias also continued to hold unknown numbers of detainees in informal
facilities. Militias remained responsible for widespread abuses, including
torture and deaths in custody. Intelligence
Extracted by Torture at Abu Salim Prison Linked to Arrests of Libyan
Dissidents in UK The Tripoli Post, 19
December 2013 www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=10872 [accessed 22 Dec
2013] In an Al Jazeera exclusive,
Libya: Renditions, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, leader of
the Gaddafi resistance group Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), explains
that he and fellow leader Sami Al-Saadi were
subjected to torture by his Libyan interrogators, which forced them to give
up names of innocent residents in the UK. Al Saadi and Belhaj also claim
foreign agents questioned them in Abu Salim prison, including British agents.
“I took the opportunity and began to explain the reality in the prison in
sign language,” says Belhaj. “I told them that in
this prison, we are being tortured and beaten and hung by our arms, and we
live in a suffocating situation. Torture and
Deaths In Detention In Libya [PDF] United Nations
Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), 1 Oct 2013 info.publicintelligence.net/UN-LibyaTorture.pdf [accessed 3 Oct
2013] Torture and other
ill-treatment in Libya is an on-going and widespread concern in many
detention centres, despite the efforts of the Libyan
authorities which are committed at the highest level to ending torture and to
ensuring the proper functioning of the criminal justice system. Since 2012 the
Government has sought to bring under the authority of the State the armed
brigades which emerged during the 2011 armed conflict, and which are in
control of most detention facilities where torture takes place. The
Government has affiliated brigades to specific ministries, even though in
many cases the brigades have retained actual control of the detention centres. In April 2013 Libya also adopted a law
criminalizing torture, enforced disappearances and discrimination and in
September 2013 a new law on transitional justice requires all conflict-related
detainees to be released or referred to the public prosecutor within 90 days
of the promulgation of the law. However, torture
continues today in Libya. It is most frequent immediately upon arrest and
during the first days of interrogation as a means to extract confessions or
other information. Detainees are usually held without access to lawyers and
occasional access to families, if any. The vast majority of an estimated
8,000 conflict-related detainees is also held without due process. From late 2011, the
United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has recorded 27 cases of deaths in custody where there is
significant information to suggest that torture was the cause, and is aware
of allegations about additional cases which it has not been able to fully investigate.
Eleven of the 27 cases, detailed in this report, took place in 2013, all in
detention centres under the nominal authority of
the Government but effectively under the authority of armed brigades. UN denounces
Libya arrests, torture South African Press
Association SAPA, United Nations, 21
June 2013 www.iol.co.za/news/africa/un-denounces-libya-arrests-torture-1.1535973#.Ugznp6yOAmg [accessed 15
Aug 2013] The UN Security Council
on Friday condemned what it said were arbitrary arrests and torture in Libya
as it struggles with a transition to full democracy after the overthrow and
death of Moamer Kadhafi. In a statement
approved by all 15 members, the council said thousands of people are being
detained outside the authority of the state and without access to due
process. The council called
for their release or transfer to detention centers under state authority. It
also condemned what it said were cases of torture and mistreatment in illegal
detention centers. Council members
"called upon the Libyan authorities to investigate all violations of
human rights and bring the perpetrators of such acts to justice," the
statement said. Egyptian
Christians allege torture at hands of Libyan Islamists Fox News, 4 March
2013 www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/04/egyptian-christians-allege-torture-at-hands-libyan-islamists/ [accessed 6 March
2013] The Christians, who
are peddlers, were arrested by Islamist Salafists in Benghazi, who said they
had Christian icons at their marketplace stalls, according to Mideast
Christian News. The men were later reportedly freed and await deportation,
but their family members back home told the Egyptian press they were abused
while held, initially on charges of proselytizing. The detained Copts
had been tortured by their captors, who had also shaved their heads and used
acid to burn off the crosses tattooed on their wrists, a source told Ahram Online. Kamel told family
members he was subjected to electric shocks and forced to clean toilets, as
his jailers assaulted him and mocked his religion, according to his family. Kamel has a wife and two children in Egypt, but went to
work in a Benghazi vegetable market in order to provide for them. Former Gaddafi PM
"risks dying" after torture: lawyer Reuters, TRIPOLI, 27
Feb 2013 www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-libya-gaddafi-pm-idUSBRE91Q0UP20130227 [accessed 28
February 2013] Al Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, a prime minister under deposed Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi, is in critical condition after being tortured in a Libyan
jail, his Tunisian lawyer said on Wednesday. An officer at the
prison where Mahmoudi is held denied this. Mahmoudi was extradited
from Tunisia in June, making him the first senior Gaddafi official to be
returned for trial under Libya's new leadership. He went on trial in
November charged with corruption and ordering mass rape during the 2011
conflict that toppled the Libyan leader and is being detained in a Tripoli
prison. "Mahmoudi risks dying. He has been tortured for the last
45 days, he is in critical condition," Mahmoudi's
lawyer, Mabrouk Khorchid,
based in Tunis, told Reuters. Arrests and
Torture of Christians Continues in Libya Morning Star News,
24 February 2013 www.christianpost.com/news/arrests-and-torture-of-christians-continues-in-libya-90684/ [accessed 25
February 2013] Arrests continue of
Christians accused of proselytizing in Libya, with a total of seven now known
to be in custody including one reported to have been tortured, sources said. Preventative
Security spokesman Hussein Bin Hmeid said in a
statement to Reuters that the four Christians originally arrested were
printing books calling for conversion to Christianity. He said the country is
100 percent Muslim and that proselytizing "affects our national security." Only one of the
four arrested on Feb. 10, Sherif Ramses of Egypt, has been publicly
identified. When Ramses was arrested, he allegedly had 30,000 Bibles in
storage, a figure that Libyan police inflated to 45,000 in published statements,
sources said. Ramses ran a small printing service in Benghazi and a bookstore
that sold both Christian and secular books. Sources close to
the arrests told Morning Star News that Ramses has been tortured, saying he
was severely bruised. Sources close to
the arrests told Morning Star News that Ramses has been tortured, saying he
was severely bruised. Several other sources independently told Morning Star
News that Preventative Security was able to get the names of other Christians
in Libya from Ramses. International
Consultant -Human Rights Consultant for “Scoping Mission to UNDP Libya Programme des Nations Unies pour le développement, 9
December 2013 jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_lang=fr&cur_job_id=42063 [accessed 26 August
2016] As of December
2012, thousands of people are held in illegal detention facilities without
any judicial process. Ill treatment, torture, and even killings in custody
are a sad reality. Tens of thousands of displaced Libyans languish in camps
around the country, many of whom have been unlawfully forcibly displaced from
their homes. Human Rights in
Libya Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/node/109196 [accessed 4 February
2013] Thousands of people
are held in illegal detention facilities without any judicial process. Ill
treatment, torture, and even killings in custody are a sad reality. Tens of
thousands of displaced Libyans languish in camps around the country, many of
whom have been unlawfully forcibly displaced from their homes. The
transitional authorities, who ruled after Gadaffi’s
fall, have failed to rein in the militias that de facto control the country,
whose crimes have gone unpunished. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER
ILL-TREATMENT Torture and other
ill-treatment remained widespread, particularly in detention facilities controlled
by militias, and were used to punish detainees and extract “confessions”.
Detainees were especially vulnerable during arrest, in their first days of
detention and during interrogation. Many signed “confessions” under torture
or duress. Article 2 of Law 38 of 2012 gave legal weight to interrogation
records of armed militias, at the discretion of judges. Many detainees were
subjected to sustained beatings with hoses, rifle butts, electric cables,
water pipes or belts, often while suspended in contorted positions. Some were
tortured with electric shocks, burned with cigarettes or heated metal,
scalded with boiling water, threatened with murder or rape and subjected to
mock execution. Tens of detainees died in the custody of militias, the SSC
and in official prisons in circumstances suggesting that torture contributed
to or caused their deaths. Tawarghan former police
officer, Tarek Milad Youssef al-Rifa’i,
died on 19 August after being taken from Wehda
Prison to the SSC in Misratah for questioning. He
had been seized from his Tripoli home in October 2011 by armed militiamen
from Misratah. His relatives found his bruised body
at a Misratah morgue; a forensic report indicated
that his death was caused by beatings. His family lodged a complaint with the
authorities but no proper investigation into his death was begun. The family of Ahmed
Ali Juma’ found his body at a Tripoli morgue
several days after he was summoned for questioning by the Abu Salim Military
Council in July. A forensic report identified “multiple bruises on the body,
on the head, on the torso and the limbs and genitals” and concluded that he
was “beaten to death”. No one was held to account for his death. IMPUNITY No meaningful
investigations were carried out by the authorities into alleged war crimes
and serious human rights abuses, including torture and unlawful killings,
committed by armed militias during and following the armed conflict. No
official findings were disclosed in relation to the apparent extrajudicial
executions of Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi, his son Mu’tassim, and other alleged al-Gaddafi loyalists and
soldiers after their capture in 2011 Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment -- Doc.
A/54/44, paras. 176-189 (1999) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/libya1999.html [accessed 3 March
2013] 182. It is a matter
of concern for the Committee that neither the report nor the information
given orally by the representatives of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya provided
the Committee with comments and answers that addressed substantially the
subjects of concern indicated and the recommendations made by the Committee
when dealing with the second periodic report of the State party in 1994.
Consequently, the Committee reiterates, inter alia, the following subjects of
concern: (a) Prolonged
incommunicado detention, in spite of the legal provisions regulating it,
still seems to create conditions that may lead to violation of the
Convention; (b) The fact that
allegations of torture in the State party continue to be received by the
Committee. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=libya+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 6 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 7 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/libya [accessed 4 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] The People’s Court,
infamous for punishing political dissidents, was abolished in 2005, but the
judiciary as a whole remains subservient to the political leadership and
regularly penalizes political dissent. In July 2007, a high-profile case
involving five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor came to an end when
the six defendants were released. They had been arrested in 1999 after being
accused of deliberately infecting 400 Libyan children with HIV, and had since
faced death sentences as the case moved through the courts. Experts have cited
ample evidence that the prosecution was politically motivated, and the
defendants claimed to have been tortured in custody. Their release followed
intense diplomatic efforts by European nations, and resulted in improved
commercial ties with Europe. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61694.htm [accessed 4 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61694.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices, but security personnel routinely tortured prisoners
during interrogations or as punishment. Government agents reportedly detained
and tortured foreign workers, particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa.
Reports of torture were difficult to corroborate since many prisoners were
held incommunicado. The reported
methods of torture included chaining prisoners to a wall for hours, clubbing,
applying electric shock, applying corkscrews to the back, pouring lemon juice
in open wounds, breaking fingers and allowing the joints to heal without
medical care, suffocating with plastic bags, deprivation of food and water,
hanging by the wrists, suspension from a pole inserted between the knees and
elbows, cigarette burns, threats of dog attacks, and beatings on the soles of
the feet. According to
Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW), the foreign medical
personnel charged with deliberately infecting children in a hospital in
Benghazi reported that they had been tortured through electric shock and beatings
to extract their confessions. On June 7, a court found not guilty 10 security
officials accused of inflicting the torture. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century- Libya
", http://gvnet.com/torture/Libya.htm, [accessed <date>] |
