Amnesty reports Libyan detainee abuse

Several detainees have died in Lybia over the last months after being subjected to torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Gaddafi fighters and loyalists, Amnesty International said today. The humanitarian group’s delegates in Libya met detainees held in and around Tripoli, Misrarah and Gheryan, who showed visible marks of torture inflicted in recent days and weeks. Their injuries included open wounds on the head, limbs, back and other parts of the body. According to Amnesty’s report, the tortures have being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities, as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework. “After all the promises to get detention centres under control, it is horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Response Adviser from Libya. “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,” she said. Detainees, both Libyan and foreign nationals from sub-Saharan African countries, talked to Amnesty about several kinds of torture. They report having been suspended in contorted positions, beaten for hours with whips, cables, plastic hoses, metal chains and bars and wooden sticks, and given electric shocks with live wires and Taser-like electro-shock weapons. Amnesty International stated they were able to see medical reports which "confirmed the testimonies and clearly proved the use of torture on several detainees, many of whom died in custody". Several told the humanitarian organisation that they had confessed to crimes they had not committed just to end the torture. Amnesty’s delegates were also able to interview a detainee who had been tortured only hours earlier. One man, still in detention, told the organisation: “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." Relatives of a former police officer from Tajura, east of Tripoli, told Amnesty he was detained by a local armed militia in October 2011 and that they had been unable to obtain any information about his fate for about three weeks, until he was allowed to call his wife. After a few days, the hospital called the family to tell the man’s body had been brought in. When the family saw the body, they could immediately recognise signs of torture on it. The man’s corpse was infact devastated by deep bruising, as well as by open wounds on the soles of the feet apparently caused by falaqa (beating on the soles of the feet), a torture method frequently reported in Libya. Amnesty proceeded to criticise the "lack of investigation by the Lybian transitional authorities, both at the national and local level". “So far there has been a complete failure on the part of those in power to take concrete steps to end torture and other ill-treatment of detainees and to hold accountable those responsible for such crimes”, said Rovera. Following the report, the human rights watchdog urged Libyan authorities to order the closure of all unofficial places of detention, to ensure that investigations were promptly carried out and that all detainees be allowed lawyers and medical examinations.