'Widespread' torture in Libya's HoR detention centres: HRW

Prisoners are routinely being held without charge, beaten and electrocuted at detention centres under the control of Libya’s internationally recognised government, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday.

In a scathing new report, HRW alleges “widespread” torture and arbitrary detention in custody centres under the control of Libya’s eastern government, the House of Representatives (HoR).

Representatives from the rights group visited detention centres in the eastern cities al-Bayda and Benghazi, Libya’s second city, in January and April of 2015.

Detainees, meeting HRW representatives without the presence of detention centre guards, reported being tortured to extract confessions for serious crimes.

People under the age of 18 were being held in centres where detainees said they were denied medical care and family visits, with many of their relatives not even informed of where they were being held.

All 73 detainees interviewed by HRW said they had been detained without charge for months, and been denied access to a lawyer.

Many of the forced confessions were later shown on television, and detainees reported that their families had been subject to reprisal attacks in the wake of the broadcasts.

Prisoners told HRW they knew of at least two deaths in custody as a result of torture.

“Government ministers, military commanders, and prison directors should immediately declare a no-tolerance policy against torture and hold anyone who abuses detainees to account,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa programme.

“They should understand that they face a risk of international investigation and prosecution if they don’t call a halt to torture by the forces under their command.”

HRW has previously called on the International Criminal Court to speak out against what it calls a “state of impunity” in the country.

The group has warned that rights abuses in Libya, allegedly committed by troops allied to the HoR and militias supportive of the HoR’s rival, the General National Congress, could amount to war crimes.

Despite the overthrow in 2011 of longtime strongman leader Muammar Gaddafi, torture and mistreatment has remained commonplace in Libya.

A 2013 UN report found that thousands of Libyans alleged to have fought in support of Gaddafi remained imprisoned and brutalised more than two years after the revolution, despite torture having been recently criminalised for the first time in April 2013.