Mr Salem Mohamed Mjber Abdaslam, Libyan national, aged 34 years, and living in Sweden, had visited Libya in December 2007 to visit his parents, residing in Zliten, a city located around 150km to the east of Tripoli.

Four days after his arrival, on 28 December 2007, agents of the Internal Security Services (Al Amn Addakhili) went to the family home at night, and arrested him. According to his family, these agents did not present any judicial mandate, and did not give reasons for his arrest.

In the following days, his relatives made enquires with the authorities, and particularly to the Internal Security Services to find out his fate and the reasons of his arrest, but in vain, as the authorities said that they were not detaining him.

Because of this disappearance, Alkarama had submitted his case on 16 April 2008 to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, asking it to intervene urgently.

Thereafter, the Libyan authorities recognised his detention by informing his parents that he was at the Ain Zara prison near Tripoli, and authorised them to visit him once in the summer of 2008.

Mr Abdaslam was not subjected to a legal procedure, and was never presented before a judicial authority. It is for this reason that on 23 October 2008, Alkarama made a submission on his behalf to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Mr Abdaslam’s deprivation of liberty was therefore arbitrary and contrary to the international normes enshrined out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Libya.