Amnesty International today denounced in a statement the intensification of the “campaign of repression against critics and political opponents in Libya” by the Internal Security Agency of Haftar’s forces.
The organization noted that impunity for serious human rights violations, such as deaths in custody, committed by “armed groups” under the command of “these forces,” has enabled the Internal Security Service to intensify its campaign of repression against its critics and political opponents, including politicians, activists, poets and bloggers.
The organization confirmed that the Internal Security Service arrested dozens of people, including women and men in their seventies, from their homes, neighborhoods, or public places in eastern and southern Libya, without an arrest warrant.
According to the organization, the detainees were transferred to facilities controlled by the Internal Security Service, where they remained arbitrarily detained for several months without being allowed to contact their families or lawyers. Some were subjected to enforced disappearance for periods of up to 10 months. None of them were brought before civilian courts, allowed to challenge the legality of their detention, or formally charged with committing any crimes.
The statement mentioned the death of two people in custody in suspicious circumstances in April and July 2024, while they were in detention centers controlled by the Internal Security Agency in Benghazi and Ajdabiya, without any independent and impartial criminal investigations into the cause of their deaths, or holding anyone accountable.
Amnesty International called on the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, as well as Haftar’s forces as the de facto authority in eastern and southern Libya, to ensure the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression, and to cease working with leaders and members of the Internal Security Service who are reasonably suspected of committing serious human rights violations and crimes under international law, pending independent and impartial criminal investigations into the causes and circumstances of deaths in custody, and to prosecute them in fair proceedings before civilian courts, if sufficient evidence exists.
The organization stressed that the prevailing culture of impunity is what enabled armed groups to violate detainees’ right to life without fear of any consequences.
She stressed that these deaths in custody add to the list of atrocities committed by the Internal Security Service against those who dare to express views critical of Haftar’s forces.
Source: Amnesty International
2024-09-13 01:36:34