International Criminal Court Investigation In Libya
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The International Criminal Court investigation in Libya or the Situation in Libya is an investigation started in March 2011 by the
International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...
(ICC) into war crimes and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
claimed to have occurred in Libya since 15 February 2011. The initial context of the investigation was the
2011 Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Liby ...
and the time frame of the investigation continued to include the
2019 Western Libya offensive The Western Libya campaign was a military campaign initiated on 4 April 2019 by the Operation Flood of Dignity ( ar, عملية طوفان الكرامة) of the Libyan National Army, which represents the Libyan House of Representatives, to cap ...
.


Initiation

The ICC investigation in Libya was initiated by the February 2011
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 was a measure adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on 26 February 2011. It condemned the use of lethal force by the government of Muammar Gaddafi against protesters participating in the ...
in the context of the
2011 Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Liby ...
. The pre-trial chamber judges are Péter Kovács (presiding),
Marc Perrin de Brichambaut Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (; born 29 October 1948) is a French career judge and diplomat. On 10 December 2014 he was elected a judge to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Until 30 June 2011 he was the Secretary General of the ...
and
Reine Alapini-Gansou Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou (born 11 August 1956) is a Beninese jurist who is a judge of the International Criminal Court since March 2018. Early life and education Alapini-Gansou was born in Abidjan in Ivory Coast on August 11, 1956. ...
.


First Libyan Civil War

Investigations started during the
First Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Libya ...
, in 2011, led to several arrest warrants.


Arrest warrants

On 27 June 2011, the ICC issued warrants of arrest for the Libyan head of state,
Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
, for his second son,
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi ( ar, سيف الإسلام معمر القذافي; born 25 June 1972) is a Libyan political figure. He is the second son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife Safia Farkash. He was a p ...
, and for
Abdullah Senussi Abdullah Senussi ( ) is a Libyan national who was the intelligence chief and brother-in-law of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. He was married to Gaddafi's sister-in-law. Scottish police officers plan to interview him in connection with the Lockerbie ...
, Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief and brother-in-law, married to Muammar Gaddafi's sister-in-law, for murders and persecution of unarmed civilians as crimes against humanity under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute. The case against Muammar Gaddafi was closed by the ICC shortly after his death. , the ICC had outstanding warrants for the arrest of Tohami Khaled, former head of the Internal Security Agency of Libya during the final years of the
Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
government; and of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, both of whom were believed by the ICC to remain at large. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi had been captured in
Zintan Zintan ( ar, الزنتان Latin: Tentheos, Berber language: ''Zintan'' or ''Tigharmin'' or ''Tiɣaṛmin'', meaning "small castles") is one of the biggest cities in north western Libya, situated roughly southwest of Tripoli, in the area. The ...
in 2014 and rumoured to have been released in June 2018. The ICC claims against
Abdullah Senussi Abdullah Senussi ( ) is a Libyan national who was the intelligence chief and brother-in-law of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. He was married to Gaddafi's sister-in-law. Scottish police officers plan to interview him in connection with the Lockerbie ...
were concluded in July 2014 on the grounds that his case was being tried in Libyan courts and , continued to monitor the progress of the Libyan legal proceedings against him.


Second Libyan Civil War

Investigations by the ICC continued during the
Second Libyan Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Second Libyan Civil War , partof = the Arab Winter, Libyan Crisis (2011–present), Libyan Crisis, Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, War on terror, and Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomat ...
, which started in 2014. In April 2019, during the
2019 Western Libya offensive The Western Libya campaign was a military campaign initiated on 4 April 2019 by the Operation Flood of Dignity ( ar, عملية طوفان الكرامة) of the Libyan National Army, which represents the Libyan House of Representatives, to cap ...
, ICC Chief Prosecutor
Fatou Bensouda Fatou Bom Bensouda (; ; born 31 January 1961) is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She served as Prosecutor from June 2012 to June 2021, after having ...
stated that both those directly committing war crimes in Libya during the conflict and their commanders would be liable to prosecution by the ICC, including anyone "ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing in any other manner to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court". Prime Minister
Fayez al-Sarraj Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj ( ar, فائز السراج or ; born 20 February 1960) is a Libyan politician who served as the Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya and Head of Government of the Government of National Accord from 2016 to 2021, ...
of the Tripoli-based
Government of National Accord The Government of National Accord ( ar, حكومة الوفاق الوطني) was an interim government for Libya that was formed under the terms of the Libyan Political Agreement, a United Nations–led initiative, signed on 17 December 2015. Th ...
(GNA) stated on 17 April that the GNA would provide documentation to the ICC regarding the 16 April Grad shelling of residential areas that killed at least seven people and wounded 17, for which he attributed responsibility to
Khalifa Haftar Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar ( ar, خليفة بلقاسم حفتر, Ḵalīfa Bilqāsim Ḥaftar; born 7 November 1943) is a Libyan-American politician, military officer, and the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA) ...
, leader of the
Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...
-based
Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; ar, الجيش الوطني الليبي, ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii'') is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa ...
(LNA). On 2 May, a spokesperson for the GNA, Muhanad Younis, stated that administrative responsibility had been allocated for documenting war crimes during the Western Libya offensive and providing the documentation to the ICC.


Arrest warrants

, the ICC had two outstanding warrants for the arrest of LNA commander
Mahmoud al-Werfalli Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al-Werfalli ( ar, محمود مصطفى بوسيف الورفلي; 1978 – 24 March 2021) was a Libyan general, commander in al-Saiqa, an elite unit of the Libyan National Army, one of the warring factions in Libya's civi ...
, for involvement in seven alleged executions in and near Benghazi of 33 people during June 2016 to July 2017 and for allegedly executing ten people "in front of a cheering crowd" in Benghazi between 23 and 25 January 2018. , the LNA had claimed that al-Werfalli had been arrested and was being investigated by military authorities, while the ICC believed that he was not under arrest and was commanding the al-Saiqa brigade of the LNA. In February 2018, information about al-Werfalli's arrest status was unclear, and an
Interpol red notice An Interpol notice is an international alert circulated by Interpol to communicate information about crimes, criminals, and threats by police in a member state (or an authorised international entity) to their counterparts around the world. The in ...
for his arrest was issued. On 15 June 2022, the ICC dropped its case against al-Werfalli, more than a year after he was killed in Benghazi.


External links


ICC website: Situation in Libya; case number: ICC-01/11


References

{{International Criminal Court
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
War crimes in Libya