Upon his arrival in Geneva, Dr Idriss Aboufaied was greeted by a member of Alkarama. The next day, he visited TRAIL and Alkarama which had jointly submitted an individual complaint on his behalf to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Dr Idriss Aboufaied is a well-known human rights defender who has openly called for the respect of fundamental rights in his country. After 16 years of exile in Switzerland where he was a refugee, he returned to Libya, encouraged by the official promises of not risking legal proceedings or persecution.

He had called for, with other human rights activists, a peaceful protest to be held in Tripoli on 17 February 2007, but was arrested with 11 other people the night before the planned protest. All were detained incommunicado for several months without being able to contact their families or the outside world. No lawyer was allowed to be appointed to assist and visit them.

Dr Idriss Aboufaied was evacuated on 6 April 2008 to the Hospital of Sabrath in the suburbs of Tripoli due to his increasingly worsening state of health in detention.

On 10 June 2008, he was condemned to 25 years of prison by the State Security Court, a special court, following a manifestly unfair trial.

All the while being happy about Dr Idriss Aboufaied's release, TRIAL and Alkarama renew their call for the immediate release of Adelrahman Al-Gteewi, kidnapped by agents of the Internal Security on 17 February 2007 and whose fate is unknown to this day.

Click here for more information on the procedure before the United Nations Human Rights Committee.