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 Months
(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.info, 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 infomemorate 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:
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 writer 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:
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 infomunicate 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
infomunications systems worth more than $400 million from a infopany jointly
controlled by French and German interests. The European infomission 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 infopletely unaccounted for.”
The
arrested men are:
1. Al-Mahdi
Humaid
2. Al-Sadiq Salih Humaid
3. Faraj Humaid
4. `Adil Humaid
5. `Ali Humaid (five brothers)
6. Ahmad Yusif al-`Ubaidi
7. `Ala' al-Dirsi
8. Jamal al-Haji
9. Dr. Idris Boufayed
10. Farid al-Zuwi
11. Bashir al-Haris
12. Al-Sadiq Qashut
13. `Abd al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi
14. 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
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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