Amnesty International calls for immediate halt to executions in eastern Libya

Amnesty International has called on Haftar’s forces to immediately halt all executions in eastern Libya and overturn what it described as unjust military sentences.

Amnesty International said Haftar’s forces had arbitrarily executed at least 30 people between August 23 and September 9, 2026, following secret and unfair military trials marred by confessions extracted under torture.

It added that at least 50 men sentenced to death at Garnada Military Prison face an imminent risk of execution.

According to Amnesty International’s statement, most of those sentenced to death or already executed were arrested in Benghazi and Derna between 2014 and 2018. They included fighters and individuals suspected of opposing Haftar, including on grounds related to their family or tribal affiliations.

It said it had documented widespread abuses against detainees, including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and brutal torture involving electric shocks, burning, beatings with thick plastic pipes, and suspension in painful positions to extract confessions that were subsequently used as evidence against them.

Amnesty International added that Haftar’s forces withheld the bodies of those executed and buried them themselves after allowing relatives only to identify the bodies. Families were also instructed not to hold funerals or mourning ceremonies.

It noted that military courts have no jurisdiction to try civilians and said their judges and prosecutors lack independence. It also pointed out that the Constitutional Chamber of Libya’s Supreme Court had ruled Law No. 4 of 2017 unconstitutional. The law had allowed civilians accused in terrorism cases to be tried before military courts.

Amnesty International called for the immediate declaration of a formal moratorium on executions, the overturning of all convictions and sentences resulting from unfair trials, and retrials before civilian courts that comply with international fair-trial standards.

It also called for independent and impartial investigations into allegations of torture, accountability for those responsible, and unconditional access for international monitors to Garnada Military Prison and other detention facilities in eastern Libya.