Stop rights abuses, HRW tells Libya rebels
2011-09-30 22:00
Cairo - The Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Friday on Libya's rebel leaders to stop their forces from making arbitrary arrests and abusing detainees in the country's prisons and makeshift detention facilities.
The rebels' Transitional National Council (TNC), with the help of its international supporters, "urgently needs to set up a justice system able to provide prompt judicial review of all detainees, a task that has not been given sufficiently high priority", the New York-based group said in a press release.
The organisation added that its personnel had visited 20 detention facilities in Tripoli and interviewed 53 detainees.
"The detainees reported mistreatment in six facilities, including beatings and the use of electric shock, and some of them showed scars to support the claims. None had been brought before a judge," HRW added.
Since the Gaddafi government's fall in late August, local brigades, militias, and other security groups aligned with the TNC have arrested thousands of people and held them without proper legal review, according to the group.
- SAPA