This week Amnesty International called for the “quashing” of Libyan 11 Christians to be sentenced to prison under charges that included “incontempt for Islam.”
The trials of 10 Libyans and one Pakistanis are plagued by the due process and severe violations of international human rights standards, which were allegedly argued by rights observers in a report on Tuesday (August 12) as they are plagued by the due process and aggravated violations of international human rights standards.
“Through the trial session that began in September 2024, the judges did not review witnesses or evidence against the defendants,” Amnesty said. “They also never questioned members of the ISA (Internal Security Agency), whose investigation was the sole basis for criminal investigation into the accused. The hearing was limited to judges confirming the presence of judges and their lawyers.”
The judge consistently ordered the defendant’s continued detention without providing justification, and postponed the hearing, Amnesty said.
On April 15, the Tripoli Court sentenced nine Libyan men, one Libyan woman and one Pakistani with prison conditions of three to 15 years, on charges of “shaming Islam,” “shaming religious sanctuaries and rituals using the internet,” and “shaming religious sanctuaries and rituals seeking the establishment of a banned group.”
Christian was arrested in March 2023 by the infamous Tripoli-based ISA on allegations that he was involved in the conversion of Muslims in Libya. Among those arrested were two US men who were released two or three days later without being charged, Amnesty said.
An investigation into the pardon revealed that Christians were tortured and subjected to arbitrary detention for several days after being questioned in the absence of a lawyer and denied access to their family. The group also found that they were forced to give forced confessions.
“On April 6-13, 2023, the ISA was featured in the official video on its YouTube channel showing seven detainees who confessed to “transforming and promoting Christianity within the country,” contrary to their right to presuming innocence. “With one exception, the ISA released the video one to seven days after the prosecutor asked the detainees. The ISA released the seventh video on the same day that the prosecutor questioned the detainees.”
Two American men who were later released also appeared in one of the forced confession videos, Amnesty noted.
Amnesty documented violations of the rights of fair trial at the pretrial stage through questioning defendants regarding unfounded accusations related to the denial of lawyers’ rights, denial of access to case files, reliance on forced confessions, and the exercise of their rights.
“The prosecutor denied all defendants, but gave them less than one right to have the attorney selected during the initial questioning,” Amnesty said. “The prosecutors also failed to assign lawyers to represent them, and instead asked questions without the presence of lawyers. They refused to provide ISA reports or prosecutor reports until the prosecutor introduced the case to the trial.
Detainees were also accused of “participating in a prohibitive group aimed at changing the fundamental principles of the state or constitution or promoting conduct in violation of the fundamental principles of the state.”
The prosecutor’s charges issued on January 1, 2024 dismissed accusations of apostasy against 11 defendants “due to lack of punishment.” The indictment explained that “punishment for apostasy as provided in Article 291 of the Penal Code – dropped after the defendant’s declaration of repentance.”
“The prosecutor’s indictment argued that Pakistanis came to Libya with the aim of “establishing a prohibited group” and “to promote principles aimed at changing the fundamental principles of the constitution,” Amnes said. “However, the Pakistani man had actually arrived in Libya in 1992 at the age of 10, with his family.”
The prosecutor’s indictment also found that the crime of participating in a prohibited group aimed at altering the basic principles of the state or constitution of all defendants except Pakistanis concluded that the suspicious conduct did not constitute a material component of the crime.
“Nevertheless, the prosecutors have indicted the Pakistani man, calling for the establishment of a prohibitive group that promotes Christianity, and “advances principles aimed at changing basic constitutional principles by promoting Christianity.”
The indictment “no article prohibits seeking or punishing other religions by reviewing criminal provisions and amended complementary laws,” Amnesty noted.
The group emphasized that under international law, everyone has the right to freedom of thinking, conscience and religion. This includes the right to change their religion and beliefs, and the right to express their religion and beliefs, either publicly or privately, with freedom, alone or with others, through education, practice, worship and observance.
The prosecutors have decided to indict 10 Libyan detainees who are allegedly “shaming Islam and using the internet to shamble religious respect and rituals,” Amnesty said, adding that the prosecutor, prosecutor and the ISA investigation failed to present evidence of any of the Islam being humiliated.
Amnesty said the judge sentenced 11 Christians without attending the sentence.
“In the session before the sentencing, the lawyers began to present their defense, but after a while the judge suspended them and asked them to stop as their defense was presented in writing,” the group said.
In its first question between March and August 2023, prosecutors accused apostasy and “promoting Christian ideology within Libya,” but argued that Amnesty did not constitute a crime under Libyan law and that the state’s apostasy status was contested.
“In February 2016, the then-judicial group in Libya, the General Conference, passed a law that would commit apostasy, the death penalty, and impose the death penalty, with the exemption of those who repented,” the Rights Group said. “The House of Representatives overturned this and other post-supervisory laws in 2020, but authorities in western Libya have ignored the decision and continue to enforce apostasy laws.”
Amnesty has urged Libyan prosecutors to immediately consider all cases detained for criminal prosecution resulting from investigations conducted by the ISA.
“He must open a prompt, thorough, independent, fair, transparent and effective investigation into allegations of human rights abuses, including torture, enforced loss of failure and arbitrary detention against all suspected ISA members,” the statement concluded. “The Libyan authorities should immediately cancel the beliefs and sentences of those who were imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights.”
Amnesty spoke to four people with close ties to those convicted, as well as legal sources who are well-informed about the trial. The organization reviewed a video issued by the ISA, in which seven prisoners were “confessed.” The organization also reviewed all official documents related to the case, including ISA investigation reports, prosecutor’s reports, prosecution and court files.
The suffering of the family
One Christian wife, unknown for security reasons, said her husband would have access to lawyers for the first time in September 2023, five months after the announcement of arbitrary arrests.
“My husband told his lawyer that his interrogator had tortured him both physically and emotionally since he was taken into custody,” she told Christian Daily International Morning Star News from the country where she and her daughter were evacuated. “When legal proceedings began in the Tripoli prosecution room in January 2024, the lawyers were informed of the charges against him.”
Her voice broke and she spoke about how he and her daughter have been suffering since his arrest.
“We wanted miracles every day. The situation reached a point where there was absolutely no information about him, and I was literally begging for evidence of his life.
He was also able to call a few months before the sentencing and was able to speak to his daughter for the first time. When her husband was arrested, their daughter was a baby, she said.
“She’s now 4 years old this year and recognizes her father from his photos. Every time he asks me when he gets home it breaks my heart,” she said. “I tell her he’ll be back with her soon.”
Her daughter prays with her every day for him, she added.
“She made a plan to go with him to learn how to skate when he came,” she said. “She has many wishes and plans that she wants to do with her father.”
Christian was taken home from work nine days before Easter and was taken into custody by the ISA in March 2023, she said.
“On the day of his arrest, he was home when Isa’s agent stopped him and took him into custody without a warrant or purpose to arrest him,” she said. “When he didn’t take my repeated calls and started contacting friends and colleagues who I didn’t know where he was, I started to worry.”
She said hours later she received a call from her husband. She says he was in Isa’s custody and said he would release him after questioning.
“He told me not to worry, but time passed and he wasn’t released,” she said. “On the other hand, I’ve started hearing news that Isa had arrested at least 11 Christians, including Libyans and foreigners.”
Libya has been torn apart by civil war and competing governments since the collapse of dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011.
