(Beirut) –
Libya
should ensure that two Libyans with ties to the previous government of
Muammar Gaddafi who were extradited from Egypt on March 26, 2013, are
treated humanely and granted their full due process rights. Libya should
grant humanitarian and human rights organizations access to them to
monitor their detention conditions and treatment and respect for their
basic rights as detainees – including giving them access to a lawyer and
promptly taking them before a judge.
Egypt and other countries asked to extradite people to Libya should
only arrest and hand over suspects if Libya credibly guarantees that it
has ended the risk of torture or ill-treatment in detention, Human
Rights Watch said. Before sending a detainee to Libya, the Egyptian and
other authorities responsible need to be satisfied that the person’s
fundamental rights will not be violated, such as through arbitrary
detention or a blatantly unfair trial.
“Holding former Gaddafi officials and others to account for past
crimes is an important step for Libyans to achieve justice,” said
Nadim Houry,
deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“But given the current level of abuse of detainees in Libya, no one
facing trial should be sent back there unless the government can prove
that they won’t be abused or denied a fair trial.”
Libya should provide credible guarantees that the detainees’ rights
will be protected, including providing the detainees with a prompt
judicial review and promptly informing them of any criminal charges
against them. Anyone who is to be extradited should be given the
opportunity to challenge their extradition beforehand if they fear
torture, cruel and inhuman treatment, persecution based on their
identity or beliefs, or other violations of human rights upon their
return, Human Rights Watch said.
Egyptian authorities arrested three people wanted by Libya on March
19 – Ahmed Gaddaf el Dam, Ali Marya, and Mohamed Ibrahim Mansour. Egypt
extradited Marya, Gaddafi’s ambassador to Egypt, and Mansour, a private
businessman and brother of former government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim,
to Libya on March 26. Libyan media have reported that the two are
expected to face trial for financial corruption.
El Dam, a relative of Gaddafi who played a key role in Libyan
relations with Egypt, is awaiting his extradition to Libya in Tora
prison in Cairo. There is no official information on the status of his
transfer to Libya, and his lawyer has challenged the pending extradition
claiming he has Egyptian citizenship, although the office of
international cooperation of the Egyptian public prosecution
office has disputed that claim.
Marya’s family told Human Rights Watch that 10 to 15 Egyptian
security forces, some in plain clothes and others in military fatigues,
awakened the family at about 2 a.m. on March 19 at their home. The
security officials arrested Marya and took him, along with his passport
and mobile phone, to an undisclosed location. The law enforcement agents
refused to show the family an arrest warrant or identify themselves,
although the family saw police cars parked outside the house, family
members said.
Marya’s family said that neither they nor his lawyer were able to
visit him in custody in Egypt and that the Egyptian authorities did not
inform them beforehand about his extradition. They learned about the
transfer from a TV station, Al Assema, the night it occurred. The family
has not had any contact with Marya in Libya, but said they will submit a
request to visit him to the Libyan Prosecutor General’s office.
Many Libyans who worked officially or unofficially for the previous
government fled Libya in mid-2011 after Gaddafi fell, most of them to
Egypt and Tunisia. According to a
New York Times report,
the new Libyan government in 2012 gave the Egyptians a list with 40
people they wanted arrested. Libya recently gave Egypt a list with
another 88 wanted people. According to the same news report, Libya was
preparing to deposit $2 billion in the Egyptian central bank, raising
concerns about a possible “quid pro quo” deal between the two countries
to hand over dozens of former Gaddafi loyalists who had found refuge in
Egypt.
A
report in the
Egypt Independent mentions more Libyan support for Egypt in the form of 1 million barrels of crude oil, to be refined in Egypt.
On June 24, 2012, Tunisia extradited the former Libyan prime minister,
al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi,
to Libya. Al-Mahmoudi had fled Libya in September 2011 and was arrested
by Tunisian authorities that month. Human Rights Watch visited him in
prison in Tripoli in July 2012, where he alleged ill-treatment by the
Tunisian authorities. Al-Mahmoudi is currently on trial in Libya on
charges that include financial corruption and ordering mass rapes during
the 2011 conflict.
In September 2012, Mauritania extradited Abdullah Senussi, the former
chief of intelligence under Gaddafi, to Libya. Senussi is also wanted
by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. A
French court has also sentenced Senussi in absentia to life
in prison in France for his alleged involvement in the 1989 bombing
of a French airliner over Niger, which resulted in 170 deaths. Senussi’s
trial in Libya for his alleged role in the 2011 conflict and other
crimes has yet to start.
Human Rights Watch has previously reported on the challenges facing the Libyan
judicial system,
including abuse in custody, denied access to lawyers, and the lack of
judicial reviews. Libya should provide access to extradited people and
all other detainees to local and international human rights
organizations that can monitor their conditions, Human Rights Watch
said.
The government acknowledges that about 8,000 people are being
detained across Libya, but only about 5,600 of them are in facilities
controlled to some degree by the government or military. The rest are
held illegally by various militias without access to lawyers, some in
secret prisons. Any form of judicial review of detention still seems to
be very limited and sporadic. Under international law, detaining a
person without prompt judicial review is automatically considered
arbitrary detention.
Deaths in custody still occur, particularly in facilities run by
armed militias and the various Supreme Security Committees – bodies that
operate nominally under the Interior Ministry. The exact number of
deaths is not known.
The Libyan authorities should ensure that all detainees are transferred
to facilities under the control of the government and that detainees
are promptly taken before a judge or judicial body to review the
legality of their detention and order their immediate release if their
detention is not lawfully justified. Only those against whom there is
evidence of involvement in serious crimes should be charged, Human
Rights Watch said.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
which Libya ratified in 1970, states that anyone facing criminal charges
has the right “to be informed promptly and in detail in a language
which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him.”
The ICCPR also requires Libya to ensure that anyone detained is brought
promptly before a judge or equivalent. The right to judicial review of
all detainees without delay is non-derogable, or absolute, meaning they
are applicable at all times, including during emergencies.
International law prohibits extraditing or otherwise transferring
anyone to a country where the person is likely to face torture, Human
Rights Watch said. Article 3 of the 1984 Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) imposes
an obligation not to return a person to any place where the person is in
danger of being subjected to torture. Tunisia ratified the Convention
against Torture in 1988. Egypt ratified the torture convention in 1986
and Libya in 1989.
“Libya understandably wants to prosecute people who committed serious
crimes,” Houry said. “But other countries should not cooperate and send
people there unless Libya proves that it will respect the law, treat
detainees humanely, and give them their rights.”
Human Rights Watch
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