Mr. Mohamed Salem Mjber ABDASLAM, Libyan citizen, aged 34 years and residing in Sweden, travelled on 24 December 2007 in Libya to visit his parents residing in Zliten, a city located about 150 kilometers east of Tripoli.

Four days after his arrival, officials from the Homeland Security (Amn Al Addakhili) went by night at his home and arrested him. According to his family, they showed no judicial warrant and they did not tell him the reasons for his arrest.

From the following day, his relatives have made representations to the authorities and in particular the internal security services at Zliten and Tripoli to inquire about his fate and the reasons for his arrest. This was to no avail as the authorities denied detaining him.

Because of this disappearance, Alkarama had submitted his case on 16 April 2007 to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances asking it to intervene urgently on this case.

Thereafter, the Libyan authorities have acknowledged his detention by informing his parents that he was in the Ain Zara prison near Tripoli and his family was allowed to visit him only once during the summer of 2008.

Mr. Abdaslam has not been subjected to any legal procedure and has never been presented before a judicial authority. His arrest was solely linked to its participation in a peaceful demonstration in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2004, organized to denounce violations of human rights in Libya.

Since then, his parents have been allowed to see him or to mandate a lawyer to assist him because there was officially no of legal action brought against him. The family remains in total ignorance of his fate.

The deprivation of liberty of Mr Abdaslam is therefore arbitrary and contrary to international standards enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Libya.

We recall that the Human Rights Committee has reviewed the fourth periodic report of Libya in October 2007 and expressed concern about the number of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings as well as the extent of the phenomenon of arbitrary detention.

In the framework of the follow-up of its recommendations, the Human Rights Committee will soon consider some of them, especially in relation to limiting the right to freedom of opinion and expression through arrests and abusive and arbitrary detentions.