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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
For Release August 14, 5:00 GMT
Libya: Men Face Possible Death for Planning
Peaceful Demonstration
Two Others ‘Disappeared’ for Nearly
Six Month
(New York, August
14, 2007) –
The Libyan government should drop charges against 12 men, one of
them a Danish citizen, on trial for planning to hold a peaceful
political demonstration in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Human
Rights Watch said today. Two other men have “disappeared” since
their arrest in connection with the case nearly six months ago.
“For all its promises of better behavior
and improved ties with the world, Libya still imprisons those
who express alternative political views, and it has
‘disappeared’ others,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of
Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division.
“Twelve men are potentially facing death sentences, and two are
missing in custody, their whereabouts unknown.”
The two “disappeared” men are `Abd
al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi, a fourth-year medical student who,
together with the 12 men on trial, was reportedly organizing the
demonstration, and Jum`a Boufayed, brother of the
demonstration’s main organizer, Dr. Idris Boufayed. Neither man
has been seen since their arrests in mid-February, nor have the
Libyan authorities provided information on their whereabouts.
Jum`a Boufayed was apparently not one of
the demonstration planners. Security agents arrested him a few
hours after he gave an interview to a Libyan website based
abroad,
www.libya-almostakbal.net, about his brother Idris’ arrest.
Security agents arrested the demonstration
organizers on February 15 and 16, 2007. They had announced plans
to hold a peaceful demonstration in Tripoli on February 17 to
commemorate the first anniversary of a violent clash between
demonstrators and police in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest
city.
On February 17, 2006, demonstrators
attacked the Italian consulate in Benghazi in response to
statements by an Italian government minister defending the
controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that had appeared
in Danish and other European newspapers. The police used force
to disperse the crowd, killing at least 11.
The 12 men are on trial for planning to
overthrow the government, possession of arms, and meeting with
an official from a foreign government.
Three open court sessions have taken place
with family members in attendance. The fourth session on August
4 was postponed. The defendants have denied the first two
charges, but admit that some of them met an official from the US
embassy to inform him of their plans.
Despite Libyan pledges to abolish the death
penalty, some or all of the defendants could face execution.
Article 206 of the Libyan penal code imposes the death penalty
on those who call “for the establishment of any grouping,
organization or association proscribed by law,” and on those who
belong to or support such an organization.
Article 166 imposes the death penalty on
anyone who talks to or conspires with a foreign official to
provoke or contribute to an attack against Libya.
Article 167 imposes up to life in prison
for conspiring with a foreign official to harm Libya’s military,
political or diplomatic position.
It is not clear whether `Abd al-Rahman
al-Qotaiwi, apparently one of the organizers, faces the same
charges, even though he has never been produced in court. The
charges against Dr. Boufayed’s brother Jum`a are also unclear.
To Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, none of
the 14 men have called for or advocated violence. The
demonstration’s main organizer, Dr. Idris Boufayed, 50, is an
outspoken critic of Libyan leader Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi and runs a
small exile group called the National Union for Reform. Security
agents detained him for 55 days on a previous occasion (please
see:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/12/04/libya14735.htm) in
November-December 2006, after he wrote critical letters
published on a Libyan opposition website (please see:
http://www.libyaalwafa.com/idrees_abufyed/public_announcement_112106.htm).
After 16 years in exile in Switzerland,
Boufayed had returned to Libya for a visit in September 2006. In
recent years, al-Qadhafi and top government officials have
publicly promised that government critics could safely return.
Another of the defendants, Jamal Ahmad
Haji, is a recognized poet and government critic. In an article
he wrote a few days before his arrest, he called for “freedom,
democracy, a constitutional state, and law” (please see:
http://libya-almostakbal.net/MinbarAlkottab/January2007/jamalhaggi200107.html)
Jamal al-Haji holds Danish citizenship,
which the Libyan government has refused to recognize. The
authorities have refused Danish government requests to visit
al-Haji, although such visits are allowed under the 1963 Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations.
Some of the detainees reportedly suffer
from medical ailments. Ahmad Yusif al-`Ubaidi has serious
problems with his legs and Al-Sadiq Salih Humaid needs
psychological care.
On July 30, Human Rights Watch wrote the
Libyan government to inquire about the 14 men, including the
charges against them and the locations of `Abd al-Rahman
al-Qotaiwi and Jum`a Boufayed. As of August 13, the Libyan
government had not replied.
In a media interview on August 2, the son
of Mu`ammar al-Qadhafi, Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, who runs the
influential Qadhafi Foundation for Development, said the men had
possessed arms and ammunition. “Idris Boufayed and his people
are terrorists,” he told the BBC. “And you will see with your
own eyes in the trial that he’s a terrorist.”
According to Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi: “We
got all the emails, his [Boufayed’s] emails, saying that we have
to communicate with other people abroad. That we have to go to
the Green Square and we have to provoke the policemen and to let
them shoot at us and then we create another problem in Libya and
we can manipulate it and use it against the regime, and so on.”
From the interview, it remains unclear who
obtained Dr. Boufayed’s alleged emails.
The trial of the 12 men follows the release
last month of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor
convicted of infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV
(please see:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/07/24/libya16469.htm). They
spent eight years in prison in a case marred by torture and
unfair proceedings.
Shortly after
their release
on July 24, Libya purchased anti-tank missiles and
communications systems worth more than $400 million from a
company jointly controlled by French and German interests. The
European Commission said it will negotiate an agreement with
Libya that paves the way for renewed partnership and
cooperation.
“Governments and businesses should not
embrace Libya just because it released people from prison who
should not have been there in the first place,” Whitson said.
“Meanwhile these 12 men – one a European citizen – remain
unjustly behind bars, while two remain completely unaccounted
for.”
The arrested men are:
- Al-Mahdi
Humaid
- Al-Sadiq
Salih Humaid
- Faraj
Humaid
- `Adil
Humaid
- `Ali
Humaid (five brothers)
- Ahmad
Yusif al-`Ubaidi
- `Ala'
al-Dirsi
- Jamal
al-Haji
- Dr. Idris
Boufayed
- Farid
al-Zuwi
- Bashir
al-Haris
- Al-Sadiq
Qashut
- `Abd
al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi
- Jum`a
Boufayed (brother of Dr. Idris Boufayed)
For further information, please contact:
In New York, Fred Abrahams (English,
German): +1-212-216-1281; or +1-917-385-7333 (mobile); or
abrahaf@hrw.org
In Cairo, Gasser Abdel Razek (Arabic,
English): +20-2-2-794-5036; or +20-10-502-9999 (mobile); or
rzekg@hrw.org
In Paris, Ricky Goldstein (English,
French): +33-6-20-67-27-27 (mobile); or
goldstr@hrw.org
In Brussels, Lotte Leicht (English, French,
German, Danish): +32-2-737-1482; or +32-47-568-1708 (mobile); or
leichtl@hrw.org
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