Authorities from eastern Libya have executed dezeanas since August – NGOs

Alibya’s Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), which control eastern and southern Libya, have executed at least 31 people since the end of August, Human Rights Watch said today.

These are the first known executions in Libya since 2010, with at least 50 more people in Gernada's military prison at imminent risk of execution, according to the non-governmental organisation (NGO) of human rights.

On August 23, the LAAF military prosecutor announced that 10 people had been executed by firing after being convicted of murder and terrorist-related crimes.

Human rights groups documented a total of at least 31 executions by September 10.

For Human Rights Watch, the LAAF, led by General Khalifa Haftar, must immediately interrupt all executions and establish a moratorium on the death penalty.

“The Arab Armed Forces of Libya are executing people after secret trials based on confessions allegedly obtained under torture, in courts that the Libyan Supreme Court itself declared could not judge civilians,” said Bassam Khawaja, Deputy Director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa Division.

“ Each execution carried out under these conditions is an irreversible injustice and all governments with influence over the LAAF should press hard to prevent” executions, HRW said.

Many of those executed had been detained in the cities of Derna and Benghazi during or after the armed conflict between the LAAF and opposing armed groups, which occurred between 2014 and 2018.

Between 2018 and 2021, the military courts of eastern Libya condemned hundreds of civilians in secret trials targeting actual or alleged LAAF critics, sentenceing at least 22 of them to death.

According to Amnesty International (AI), many sentences were based on confessions allegedly obtained under torture by the Internal Security Agency, an armed group linked to LAAF.

At least two death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in the degree of appeal by a superior military court in 2019; however, the defendants were executed, however, this year.

The executions also continued despite a November 2025 decision, issued by the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court of Libya, declaring Law No 4/2017 unconstitutional – which gives the military courts jurisdiction to judge civilians for terrorism and crimes against the State.

Local human rights groups have said that military trials have violated the rights of defendants to a fair trial.

Several defendants were denied the right to choose their own lawyers and those who had them were denied visits before and during the trial, besides not being able to speak to the prisoners in private.

Libya remains divided between two rival authorities. The Government of National Unity (GNU), based in Tripoli and internationally recognized, controls the west, along with security agencies and armed groups linked to it. The LAAF and associated forces and militias control the east and south. Both sides operate with almost complete impunity.

The United Nations and GNU condemned executions.

For HRW, the Libyan authorities, both in the east and in the west, must restrict the jurisdiction of the military courts to military crimes committed by the military and completely cease the trial of civilians in those courts.

Libyan leaders should, according to the NGO, promptly review all cases of civilians detained and wrongly prosecuted before military courts and offer effective reparatory measures.

For HRW, Libya must abolish the death penalty and, until that happens, establish a moratorium on all executions.