Secret military courts in eastern Libya resume executions, killing at least 30 inmates

Human-rights monitors say at least 30 prisoners were executed in eastern Libya after being sentenced by secretive military courts, with another 50 individuals at risk of death. Amnesty International attributes the resumption of executions to the Libyan Arab Armed Forces under Khalifa Haftar, noting the first such killings since 2010 occurred on 23 August. Detainees reportedly endured torture to extract confessions used in trials that lacked public hearings, legal representation, and impartial judges.

Families were prevented from conducting burial rites, as authorities interred the bodies themselves. The UN Support Mission in Libya and other UN bodies have denounced the actions, urging a halt to executions and the release of detainees for fair civilian trials. Parallel reports from the Crime Monitoring Organisation document 31 executions at Gernada and al-Kuwayfiyah prisons, highlighting the opacity of case files. The executions undermine a de-facto death-penalty moratorium that had lasted about 15 years and complicate efforts to unify Libya’s rival administrations ahead of national elections.