Several suspected pro-Gaddafi fighters are being tortured in Libyan prisons, according to Amnesty International.
The organisation said its representatives in Libya have met with some of the alleged victims who informed them that many of the tortured detainees have died after being brutalised in the hands of militias.
The most recent death in custody was that of Ezzeddine al-Ghool on 14 January. The 43-year-old army colonel and father of seven was detained and reportedly tortured by an armed militia based in Gheryan, 100km south of Tripoli.
Amnesty’s senior crisis response advisor Donatella Rovera said: “After all the promises to get detention centres under control, it is horrifying to find that there has been no progress in stopping torture.”
Rovera added adding that alleged victims have shown visible marks indicating torture inflicted in recent times. These injuries included open wounds on the head, limbs, back and other parts of the body.
“We are not aware of any proper investigations into cases of torture, and neither the survivors nor the relatives of those who have died in detention have been able to get justice for what happened to them,” she said
“While many detainees have described their experiences of torture to us, some have proved too scared to speak – fearing harsher torture if they speak out – and just showed us their wounds.”
Rovera accused Libya’s official military and security units, as well as a multitude of illegal armed militias, of perpetrating acts of torture upon detainees. She said those Amnesty has interviewed are both Libyan and foreign nationals from sub-Saharan Africa – including detainees interviewed in Misratah on 12 January who were reportedly tortured only hours before.
One male detainee said: “This morning they took me for interrogation upstairs. Five men in plain clothes took turns beating and whipping me… They suspended me from the top of the door by my wrists for about an hour and kept beating me. They also kicked me.”
Another told Amnesty that he was beaten on wounds sustained the month before at the hands of the militia.
“Yesterday they beat me with electric cable while my hands were cuffed behind my back and my feet were bound together,” he said. “They [officials] threatened to send me back to the militia who captured me, who would kill me.”
Amnesty International said that since May 2011 it has repeatedly asked the Libyan transitional authorities – both at the national and local level – to investigate cases of torture and suspicious deaths in custody, but they have so far failed to do so.
