Twenty-four years ago, a special forces unit raided the Abou Selim prison in the suburbs of the Libyan capital Tripoli, shooting dead 1,269 opponents of Moammar al-Gaddafi’s regime.

Libya Febrayer TV yesterday aired a video showing detention facilities, which it described as “human ovens”, where oppositionists were tortured by renegade General Khalifa Haftar’s forces.

Malta has signed an agreement with Libya to set up coordination centres in Tripoli and Valletta to help support efforts to combat “illegal immigration“.

The family of a Libyan smuggler killed by migrants have taken revenge by killing 26 Bangladeshis and four Africans, the country’s UN-recognised government said Thursday.

Al-Kani (A.K.A. Al-Kanyat) militias, who are supporters of Khalifa Haftar’s forces, have committed more atrocities and kidnappings of Tarhouna-based persons, Head of Victims Organization for Human Rights, Nasser Al-Hawari, said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Justice of the UN-backed Libyan government said on Monday that a total of 1,347 prisoners have been released so far over the fears about the spread of COVID-19.

Libyan authorities have announced the release of more than 450 prisoners as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus that has infected at least eight people in the country.

The Libyan Crime Watch has said it had documented the death of three prisoners as a result of the lack of medical care and neglect and poor humanitarian conditions in prisons in the eastern region, noting the Kuwefia and Qarnadah prisons in particular.

As Libyan authorities confirmed three COVID-19 cases in the country as of March 28, 2020, they need to be prepared to limit the spread of the virus in overcrowded detention facilities and shelters for displaced people, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

Libya’s justice ministry announced Sunday over 450 prisoners were being freed in a bid to protect against the spread of coronavirus in the wake of the war-torn country’s first declared infections.