Many African migrants enter Libya hoping to eventually reach Europe.
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
TRIPOLI, Libya – Human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the execution of eighteen foreign nationals in Libya. The eighteen individuals, from Chad, Egypt, and Nigeria, were executed by firing squad on Sunday. According to the Libyan newspaper Cerene, those executed had been convicted of murder.
Amnesty International’s condemnation of the execution focused on Libya’s trial standards, which fail to satisfy international standards for fair trial. Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:
“In Libya we fear that death sentences are handed down after proceedings which fail to satisfy international standards for fair trial.”
Cerene reported that fourteen people were executed in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, and four were executed in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city.
According to Amnesty, foreign nationals are at a disadvantage in the Libyan legal system because they do not have access to lawyers, have no access to their consular representatives, and frequently do not understand the trial proceedings, which are in Arabic. Furthermore, foreign nationals have a harder time getting their sentences commuted because they often have limited financial means, and do not possess the family networks that are necessary for successful negotiation in Libya.
Of the more than 200 people currently on death row in Libya, a disproportionate number of those waiting to be executed are foreign nationals.
Each year thousands of African migrants make their way to Libya with the hope of eventually finding passage to Europe.
For more information, please see:
BBC – Libyan executions of foreigners are condemned – 2 June 2010
AFP – Amnesty condems Libya executions – 2 June 2010
Amnesty International – Libya: Amnesty International Condemns Executions of 18 People Including Foreign Nations in Libya by Firing Squad – 1 June 2010
