TRIPOLI —
A
Libyan court said Wednesday it could not rule on the case of a notorious
prison massacre under former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, arguing it should be
heard by a military tribunal.
اضافة اعلان
In 1996, 1,269 inmates were killed following an
uprising at the Abu Slim jail in Tripoli.
Fifteen years later, rare protests by family members
demanding to know the truth about the killings helped spark the uprising that
toppled Gaddafi.
But despite his departure and killing in the 2011
revolt, they have yet to receive answers.
A
Tripoli appeals court has been examining the case
since May 2021 and had been set to deliver a verdict on the case on Wednesday.
But instead, the judge “ruled that the entire case
had a military character, as many of those implicated belonged to the
military”, a prosecution source told AFP.
“He decided to transfer the entire case to a
competent military court.”
The source said the case was now “entirely outside
the civilian court system” and in the hands of the military courts.
In 2019, a Libyan court had declared the case
inadmissible, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling and later handed the
file to a new court.
Wednesday’s ruling is another stage in the Abu Slim
families’ long wait for justice.
It was only in 2001 that they were informed that
their loved ones had died. Many were buried in mass graves inside the prison,
later exhumed after Gaddafi’s fall.
The main suspects
are the dictator’s former intelligence chief Abdallah Al-Senussi and Mansour
Daou, head of Gaddafi’s personal guard.
Other senior regime figures are also on trial in the
case.
International rights groups have long called for
fair trials and accountability for those involved.
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