Libya executing people based on secret trials and confessions extracted under torture, group says

CAIRO (AP) — Libya has executed at least 31 people since late August following military trials, marking the country’s first known executions since 2010, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The rights group said it had documented the executions carried out by the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) as of Sept. 10. It warned that at least 50 other people held at Gernada military prison were at imminent risk of execution.

The LNA, also known as the Libyan Arab Armed Forces, is an east-based military force commanded by Gen. Khalifa Hifter that controls eastern and southern Libya.

“The Libyan Arab Armed Forces are putting people to death after secret trials built on confessions allegedly extracted through torture, in courts that Libya’s own Supreme Court has said should not be trying civilians,” Bassam Khawaja, HRW’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director, said in a report. “Every execution carried out under these conditions is an irreversible injustice.”

Human Rights Watch called on the army to immediately halt executions and impose a moratorium on the death penalty.

The LNA military prosecutor announced in late August that a firing squad executed 10 people after they were convicted of murder and terrorism-related charges, according to the rights group.

Many of those executed were arrested in Derna and Benghazi cities during or after conflicts between the LNA and opposing armed groups between 2014 and 2018, according to the Wednesday report.

In September, Amnesty International reported that military courts in eastern Libya had convicted hundreds of civilians between 2018 and 2021 in secret trials targeting people accused of criticizing the LNA. At least 22 were sentenced to death during this period. The group also said torture was reportedly used to extract confessions.

International rights groups have repeatedly criticized the detention and, in some cases, execution of people after unfair trials. Amnesty International has said Libya retains the death penalty for a wide range of offenses, with courts in both the east and west continuing to impose death sentences for murder following “grossly unfair trials.”

Libya was plunged into chaos and division after a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed its longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.