Libya Crimes Watch (LCW) has documented the death of Juma’a Mohammed Saad al-Sharif (63 years old) on Friday, 24 April, following a deterioration in his health during arbitrary detention at al-Kweifiya Prison in Benghazi and the denial of necessary medical care.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al-Sharif, a follower of a Sufi order, was arrested in September 2024 near his home in Benghazi by armed personnel affiliated with\u00a0the General Directorate of Security Operations (GDSO)\u00a0under the Ministry of Interior of the Libyan Government, accredited by the House of Representatives (HoR). During his detention, he was subjected to torture and\u00a0ill-treatment, and\u00a0remained held outside any legal framework until his health deteriorated and he died.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al-Sharif’s death forms part of a pattern of violations documented by LCW since 2024, which has included the deaths of at least five (5) other detainees, in the context of a campaign of arbitrary arrests targeting more than eighty (80) civilians in eastern Libya, including women, on accusations of sorcery and witchcraft. Those detained were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, and denial of basic legal safeguards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW holds the authorities in eastern Libya fully legally accountable for al-Sharif’s death and for the lives and safety of all arbitrarily detained persons. LCW affirms that the violations to which detainees have been subjected constitute grave breaches of Libya’s obligations under international human rights law (IHRL). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW calls on the Libyan Attorney General to open an urgent and transparent investigation into al-Sharif’s death and the other documented deaths, to ensure that those responsible are held accountable in accordance with international fair trial standards, and to take meaningful steps to address the impunity that enables the recurrence of such violations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LCW further calls on the authorities in eastern Libya to cease the targeting of civilians on the basis of their religious practices, including followers of Sufi orders, to immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of all arbitrarily detained persons, and to release them immediately and unconditionally. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Libya Crimes Watch (LCW) has documented the death of Juma’a Mohammed Saad al-Sharif (63 years old) on Friday, 24 April, following a deterioration in his health during arbitrary detention at al-Kweifiya Prison in Benghazi and the denial of necessary medical care.\u00a0 Al-Sharif, a follower of a Sufi order, was arrested in September 2024 near his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[654],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26295,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26293\/revisions\/26295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcw.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}