Torture claims fuel outcry as Libya carries out public executions for first time since fall of Gaddafi

Executions resume in eastern Libya

The killings began in August, about two weeks after Major-General Fawzi al-Mansouri, a Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) military intelligence chief, was killed in a car bombing in Benghazi. On 23 August, the military prosecutor’s office announced that 10 people convicted of terrorism-related offences had been executed.

The charges included membership in banned organisations and involvement in assassination attempts against Libyan military personnel. The LAAF controls eastern Libya. The executions followed a 15-year period without any executions, according to the report.

Rights groups challenge trials

Amnesty reports that some detainees were forcibly disappeared and held in isolation for as long as two years. It says people were tortured, including with electric shocks, burns and beatings, to obtain confessions.

Appeals and access to lawyers

Amnesty says at least two of those executed had their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment on appeal, leaving no legal basis for their executions. Human Rights Watch says trials took place without advance notice, while families and journalists were excluded.

The rights group also says defendants were denied lawyers of their choice. Some detainees with lawyers, it says, could not meet them before or during trial or speak privately with them.

Arrests and calls to act

Human Rights Watch says 31 people have reportedly been arrested so far. Many were detained in Derna and Benghazi during fighting between the LAAF and its opponents from 2014 to 2018, and were convicted in the years up to 2021. Amnesty researcher Mahmoud Shalaby said the LAAF should reverse course, while HRW deputy regional director Bassam Khawaja called each execution an “irreversible injustice.” Libya was left deeply divided after the 2011 Nato-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi.