Flanked by the Minister of Justice Halima Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah has announced that the Government of National Unity in Tripoli has taken control of the prisons. The Ministry of Justice has now taken full responsibility over the prisons. The step is part of a process initiated by the Premier to integrate armed military factions with the official security forces.
Libyan prisons are run without judicial oversight and are used by armed militias for torture, kidnapping, and even extrajudicial killings. Critics of the Prime Minister have also died in Libyan prisons. Abdul Moneim al-Marimi was a critic of the Prime Minister who died in prison earlier this month with official reports stating that he committed suicide by jumping off a staircase, however his relatives state that he was tortured while in prison.
The Libyan government is also refusing to hand over Najim al-Masri to the International Criminal Court. Al-Masri is being accused of crimes against humanity when he was a prison official having committed and abetted widespread crimes in Libyan prisons that include murder, rape and torture.
In his speech the Prime Minister mentioned several cases of injustices in Libyan prisons including a man who was incarnated without trial for ten years. The Prime Minister vowed to curb these abuses and reiterated that no one is above the law.
Newsroom
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