14 May 2012

Libya: Mr. Rifat Al Khwildy, a journalist who participated in the revolution, is arbitrarily detained and is the victim of torture and ill-treatment

Alkarama seized the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the case of Mr. Rifat Al Khwildy, a victim of arbitrary detention and torture for nine months.

A 27-year-old journalist, Mr. Al Khwildy participated in the Revolutionary Movement of 17 February 2011. Having learned that his name appeared on a list of people that were opposed to the revolution and that he was now the object of an investigation, he turned himself into the Military Council in Tripoli on 4 September 2011.

Although he was promised that his rights would be guaranteed, he was placed in detention without a warrant. Transferred from prison to prison, he was regularly insulted and violently beaten with each movement.

He was notably placed in solitary confinement where he slept on the floor. He was also tied up naked in the cold and damp to an electric pole for long periods with other prisoners.

On 22 November 2011, despite the approval of his release by the base official of Al Mitiga where he was being detained, he was kidnapped by four militiamen as soon as he left the base. He was ordered into an unmarked Mercedes and brought to the Al Nawasi barracks of the Katiba El Chatti where his abuse began upon his arrival.

He was severely beaten and slashed with a blade in many places on his body; he was urgently hospitalized on 2 December 2011 following a hemorrhage in the eye.

Upon his release from the hospital he was once again placed in detention in Ain Zara prison where he continues to this day to be submitted to torture and ill treatment to the point that his family has expressed fear for his life.

Despite the complaint lodged by his father on 27 November 2011 before the prosecutor of Tripoli, the victim's situation has not changed and the authorities do not seem to want to follow up on the family's accusations.

Alkarama representatives in Libya who have visited many prisons and detention centers in recent months have uncovered many analogous situations that they have reported to the commission of inquiry created by the Council of Human Rights in Resolution S-15/1 on 25 February 2011.

Our organization regularly seizes the Libyan authorities of these situations, calling on them to control more strictly militias who appear to be escaping their authority.

Alkarama submitted the case of Mr. Khwildy to the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations to ask that they intervene with the Libyan authorities to recall their international obligations.

Libya - HR Instruments

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

ICCPR: Accessed on 15.05.1970
Optional Protocol: Yes

State report: Overdue since 30.10.2010 (5th)
Last concluding observations: 15.11.2007

Convention against Torture (CAT)

CAT: Accessed on 16.05.1989
Optional Protocol: No
Art. 20 (Confidential inquiry): Yes
Art. 22 (Individual communications): No

State report: Overdue since 14 June 2014 (initially due in 2002)
Last concluding observations: 01.01.1999

International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED)

No

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Last review: 05.2015 (2nd cycle)
Next review: May 2015 (2nd cycle)

National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)

National Council for Civil Liberties and Human Rights − Status B

Last review: 10.2014