On 21 January, Amnesty International published a statement on the reported arrest in Italy of Osama Njeem, a long-term member of the Tripoli-based militia Deterrence Apparatus for Combatting Terrorism and Organized Crime (DACTO), based on a sealed arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. The rights watchdog condemned the ‘horrific violations committed with total impunity at the Mitiga prison in Tripoli, under the control of DACTO’, saying that this has included ‘torture and other ill-treatment, unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, and other crimes under international law and serious human rights violations’. It criticized Libyan authorities for failing to hold accountable DACTO members and commanders, instead integrating them into state institutions and showering them with high ranking positions and state salaries, emboldening them to commit further abuses and entrenching impunity.
Read the full statement here.