Entrenched impunity for deaths in custody and other serious human rights abuses by armed groups operating under the command of the self-proclaimed Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) has enabled the Internal Security Agency (ISA) to intensify its crackdown on critics and political opponents in recent months, including politicians, activists, poets and bloggers, Amnesty International said today.

Since January 2024, heavily armed ISA agents have arrested without a warrant dozens of people, including women and men in their 70s, from their homes, streets or other public places in areas of eastern and southern Libya under LAAF control. Those arrested were then transferred to ISA-controlled facilities, where they remained arbitrarily detained for months without being allowed to contact their families or lawyers; some were subjected to enforced disappearances for periods reaching 10 months. None were brought before civilian judicial authorities, allowed to challenge the legality of their detention, or were formally charged with any offences. Two people died in custody in suspicious circumstances in April and July while in ISA-controlled detention centres in Benghazi and Ajdabiya. No independent and impartial criminal investigations have been carried out into their deaths and no one has been held accountable.

“The spike in arbitrary detentions and deaths in custody in recent months highlights how the existing culture of impunity has empowered armed groups to violate detainees’ right to life without fearing any consequences. These deaths in custody add to the catalogue of horrors committed by the ISA against those who dare to express views critical of LAAF,” said Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International’s Libya Researcher.

“The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity as well as LAAF, as the de facto authorities in eastern and southern Libya, must ensure the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The LAAF must also suspend from positions of power ISA commanders and members reasonably suspected of crimes under international law and serious human rights violations, pending independent and impartial criminal investigations, including into the causes and circumstances of the deaths in custody, and, where sufficient evidence exists, prosecute them in fair proceedings in front of civilian courts.”

Amnesty International interviewed one former detainee, the families of seven detainees, including the two men who died in custody, as well as lawyers, human rights defenders and political activists.

Our son was brought back to us as a corpse

On 13 July 2024, Ahmed Abdel Moneim Al-Zawi, 44, died while detained at an ISA detention centre in Ajdabiya in northeastern Libya. He was arbitrarily arrested on 10 July while visiting the detention centre to see his brother Abdrabo Abdel Moneim Al-Zawi, who had been detained due to his criticism of the ISA. According to informed sources, the ISA claimed that Ahmed Abdel Moneim al-Zawi hung himself, but witnesses reported seeing a bruise on the back of his head which appeared to be due to a strong blow.

Sheikh Al-Sanussi Al-Haliq Al-Zawi, Vice President of the Supreme Council of Notables and Tribes of Libya and the head of the victim’s tribe, appeared in a video  on 16 July lamenting: “Our son (Ahmed) entered on his two feet and was brought back to us as a corpse.” Less than 24 hours later, he appeared in another video praising the ISA and noting that a committee had been established to investigate Ahmed Abdel Moneim Al-Zawi’s death. Amnesty International suspects that Sheikh Al-Sanussi Al-Haliq Al-Zawi was pressured to publicly exonerate the ISA in line with a previously documented pattern of the ISA threatening survivors and victims’ families if they dare speak out against them.

According to informed sources, a prosecutor in Benghazi closed the case without any investigations, and the forensic report omitted any mention of injuries to the head. 

Siraj Dughman, a Libyan political analyst, also died while in ISA custody on 19 April 2024. The LAAF never responded to calls by members of the international community and Libyan civil society to launch an investigation into the circumstances of his death. The ISA claimed on 20 April that Siraj Dughman fell during an escape attempt. They did not allow the family to see his body and no autopsy report was shared. Amnesty International learned that his death certificate indicated that the cause of death was “a fall from an elevated place”.

Arbitrary arrests over bogus charges

On 1 October 2023, the ISA arrested Siraj Dughman along with Fathi al-Baaja, the General Secretary of the Libya for All Party and a former member of the 2011 National Transitional Council, as well as another political activist, accusing them of planning to overthrow the LAAF. These arrests took place after the Libyan Centre for Strategic and Future Studies headed by Siraj Dughman had an internal meeting to discuss the deadly collapse of the Derna dam.

Later that month, the ISA arrested two other political activists who theyclaimed belonged to the same group as Siraj Dughman and were planning to overthrow the LAAF. The four survivors were released on 25 August, after over 10 months of arbitrary detention without charge or trial.

Arbitrary detained activist and blogger Maryam Mansour Al-Warfalli , known as “Nakhla Fezzan,” was arrested on 13 January 2024 by the ISA in Sabha, after she criticized the LAAF’s supervision of the distribution of cooking gas in southern Libya. Maryam Mansour Al-Warfalli has been a vocal critic of mismanagement in southern Libya for years.

According to a family member, since her detention at the ISA headquarters in Benghazi, Maryam Mansour Al-Warfalli has been denied any family visits. She was seen by a psychiatrist, who requested that she be admitted to Benghazi Hospital on 2 May, but she only stayed there for a few days before being returned to prison.

ISA agents also arbitrarily arrested Sheikh Ali Msbah Abusbeha, 77, head of the Supreme Council of Tribes and Cities of Fezzan and a political figure critical of LAAF, on 19 April in Sabha and denied him access to his family or lawyers. He told Amnesty International that he is still receiving medical care following his release on 20 June and that he fled his home three days after his release due to threats by LAAF. 

Armed groups allied to LAAF have also subjected 78-year-old Sufi Sheikh Muftah Al-Amin Al-Biju to enforced disappearance since 4 February after some 20 armed men arrested him from his home in Benghazi. According to a family member, he was solely targeted for exercising his right to freedom of religion and belief, amid the ISA’s targeting of Sufis not espousing the Madkhali Salafi ideology to which ISA adheres. The family member heard from unofficial sources that his health in Qarnada prison, where ISA controls a wing, has been deteriorating as he has diabetes and a frail immunity system being a cancer survivor. His relatives have been unable to visit him or obtain confirmation from any LAAF affiliated armed groups about his place of detention. 

Background

The ISA armed group operates under the de facto authority of the LAAF and is led by Ousama Al-Dressi. Members of the ISA, have committed harrowing human rights abuses to silence critics and opponents.  The budget  of LYD 179 billion (USD 36.8 billion) approved by Libya’s parliament in July 2024 for the eastern-based “Libyan Government,” allied to the LAAF, earmarks funds for armed groups with histories of abuse, including the ISA. The LAAF controls and carries out government-like functions in Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya, and large swathes of eastern and southern Libya. Where de facto authorities, such as the LAAF, are in control of territory and exercising government-like functions, they are also bound by international human rights law.

A separate entity, also named ISA, operates in western Libya and is led by Lotfi al-Harari, nominally under the authority of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU).