Amnesty International Report 2000 - Libya

Head of state: Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi
Capital: Tripoli
Population: 5.6 million
Official language: Arabic
Death penalty: retentionist

Hundreds of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, remained in detention. Many of them had been detained for more than a decade without charge or trial. Torture, especially during incommunicado detention, continued to be reported.

Background

Celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the revolution which brought Colonel Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi to power coincided with the holding of an extraordinary summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in September in Libya.

Libya has no independent non-governmental organizations, human rights groups or independent bar association. Libyan law prohibits the formation of political parties and criticism of the political system. The press is strictly controlled by the government.

The Lockerbie bombing

In April the UN Security Council suspended the seven-year international air embargo and other punitive measures against Libya after the Libyan authorities handed over two Libyan nationals suspected of being responsible for an airplane bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 in which 270 people were killed. The trial before a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands was expected to open at the beginning of 2000.

Following the handover of the Lockerbie suspects, the Arab League called for a full lifting of the sanctions against Libya. The European Union (EU) decided to suspend sanctions imposed on Libya, but to keep an arms embargo in place. Libya was given observer status in the Euro-Mediterranean process and invited to accept the terms of the Barcelona Declaration of 1995, which include a commitment to human rights and democracy.

The UTA airliner bombing

In March the Court of Assizes in Paris, France, sentenced six Libyan nationals in absentia to life imprisonment for the bombing of a French UTA airliner which exploded in 1989 over Niger killing 170 people. Among those sentenced were high-ranking Libyan officials from the Libyan secret service and diplomatic corps. Libya did not accept responsibility for the incident, but reportedly transferred funds of more than US$30 million to France in order to compensate relatives of the victims of the bombing. However, in October a French high court judge decided to open investigations into the alleged involvement of Colonel al-Gaddafi in the bombing of the airliner.

Political prisoners

In a television speech broadcast on 30 September Colonel al-Gaddafi invited AI and other human rights organizations to come to Libya, claiming that there were no political prisoners in the country. AI wrote to the Libyan government reiterating its concerns about hundreds of political prisoners held without trial or after unfair trials, including prisoners of conscience. AI proposed a research visit and sought assurances that it could be conducted without interference. By the end of the year the organization had not received a reply to its request.

Five prisoners of conscience, who were arrested in 1973 and convicted of membership of the prohibited Islamic Liberation Party, continued to serve life sentences in Abu Salim Prison in Tripoli.

Several people, including possible prisoners of conscience, detained during the year in connection with their political activities or religious beliefs or activities remained in detention.

Scores of professionals, including engineers and university lecturers, who were arrested in June and July 1998 on suspicion of supporting or sympathizing with al-Jama'a al-Islamiya al-Libiya, the Libyan Islamic Group, an underground Islamist movement which was not known to have used or advocated violence, remained held at Abu Salim and 'Ain Zara prisons in Tripoli.

Hundreds of political prisoners arrested in previous years, including possible prisoners of conscience, remained held without charge or trial. Many of them have been detained for more than a decade. Scores of other political detainees remained in detention despite having been tried and acquitted by the courts. Others continued to serve prison sentences imposed in previous years after grossly unfair trials.

• Rashid 'Abd al-Hamid al-'Urfia, a law graduate, was reportedly arrested with 20 others in 1982 on suspicion of founding an Islamist opposition group. All those arrested with him were released following a general amnesty in 1988, but he remained in Abu Salim Prison in Tripoli.
• Al-Sayyid Mohammad Shabou, a Libyan citizen with refugee status in the United Kingdom, was detained by the Libyan authorities after he and his family were forcibly returned to Libya by the Saudi Arabian authorities in 1998. He continued to be held without charge or trial, reportedly in connection with his Islamist opposition activities.

Prison conditions

Political detainees were reportedly held in cruel, inhuman or degrading conditions and denied adequate medical care, which led to several deaths in custody.

• Mohammad 'Ali al-Bakoush, detained since 1989 without charge or trial, died in Abu Salim Prison in August, reportedly as a result of poor conditions of detention.

'Disappearance' of Mansour Kikhiya

Mansour Kikhiya, a prominent Libyan opposition leader and human rights activist, "disappeared" in 1993 in Egypt. In February 1999 the Cairo Court of Appeals ordered the Egyptian Interior Ministry to pay Baha al-'Emari, Mansour Kikhiya's wife, about US$30,000 compensation for having failed to provide the necessary protection for her husband. The court's verdict stated that "according to international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the [Egyptian] State has a responsibility concerning action committed against foreigners on its territory". However, on 7 April the Egyptian Court of Cassation suspended the ruling.

Torture

There were continued reports that political detainees were routinely tortured while held in incommunicado detention. Reported methods of torture included beatings, hanging by the wrists, being suspended from a pole inserted between the knees and elbows, electric shocks, burning with cigarettes and attacks by aggressive dogs causing serious injuries.

In April the UN Committee against Torture examined Libya's implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and concluded that the Libyan authorities had failed to substantially address concerns and recommendations previously raised by the Committee. The Committee reiterated its concerns that it continued to receive allegations of torture and that "prolonged incommunicado detention in spite of the legal provisions regulating it still seems to create conditions which may lead to violation of the Convention". The Committee's recommendations included that the Libyan authorities should "send a clear message to all its law-enforcement personnel that torture is not permitted under any circumstances".