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Libya

The International Criminal Court (ICC) and justice in Libya. Photo: A vehicle burnt during clashes between armed militias and government forces.
The ICC in Libya’s quagmire
16 June 2025 by Margherita Capacci
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court would like to close the investigation in Libya in early 2026. And the official Libyan government has accepted the Court's jurisdiction until 2027. Could this put an end to the deadlock?
How does justice work in Italy for crimes committed against migrants? Photo: Migrants from Africa, most of whom pass through Libya, are rounded up and watched over by Italian police officers. Italy: is accountability for crimes against migrants possible?
3 March 2025 by Margherita Capacci
Although trials against migrant smugglers have multiplied over the past decade in Italy, the suspects often face the only charge of smuggling while charges of kidnapping, killings, extortion or sexual violence hardly ever apply. T [...]
Osama Almasri Najim was warmly welcomed on his arrival in Libya on an Italian government plane. He had been arrested in Italy following an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Rome defies the ICC
31 January 2025 by Margherita Capacci
Italian head of the government Giorgia Meloni announced, on Tuesday January 28, that she was under investigation following the expulsion of a Libyan man wanted by the International Criminal Court. The man, Osama Najim, is known as [...]
Life jackets abandoned by migrants who arrived in Italy by sea Migrant traffickers on trial in Europe
10 March 2023 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Following up on Justice Info’s article published last month, our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts Janet Anderson, Stephanie van den Berg and Margherita Capacci ask: How come two Eritrean men are on trial in Italy and the Netherla [...]
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Migrants in a detention center in Libya
17 February 2023 by Margherita Capacci
Human trafficking in Libya: the ICC promises, national courts act The trials of two Eritrean men arrested last fall and charged with crimes linked to human trafficking in Libya have started early 2023 in the Netherlands and is about to start in Italy. They are the result of strong cooperation be [...]
A group of people gather in the street, in Libya, in front of a poster showing 4 civilian victims of militias.
22 July 2022 by Julia Crawford
Justice in Libya: A road to hope or a road to nowhere? A UN Fact-Finding Mission recently published its third report unveiling more evidence of “crimes against humanity, war crimes, and gross human rights violations” in Libya, including against migrants. National authorities are suppo [...]
Many people wearing life jackets wait untel the are rescued from a rubber boat
14 June 2022 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
The continuing nightmare of migrants in Libya For several years, NGOs and journalists have desperately alerted courts and governments on the crimes committed against migrants in Libya. Thousands of them are trapped in detention centers, subject to extortion, starvation, rape, [...]
17 June 2019 by Julia Crawford
Could the ICC address human trafficking as an international crime? While reports appeared of migrants in Libyan detention centres being abused and sold into slavery, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said in 2016 and 2017 that human trafficking could be a new priority for t [...]
5 April 2018 by Julia Crawford, swissinfo.ch
As first group of Libya refugees arrives in Switzerland, who is a refugee and who a migrant? As Switzerland receives a first group of vulnerable refugees from Libyan detention centres, we take a look at the international response to Libya's migrant crisis. At the end of last year, CNN reports of detained Africans being so [...]
24 November 2017 by AFP
Libya slave auctions: 'Everybody knew' World leaders may have been quick to voice outrage over video footage of Libyan slave auctions, but activists raised the alarm months ago -- and their warnings fell on deaf ears. Aid workers, rights groups and analysts say they ha [...]
16 August 2017 by Stéphanie Maupas, correspondent in The Hague
ICC issues arrest warrant for Libyan strongman ally On Tuesday August 15, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a new arrest warrant for crimes committed in Libya. Mahmoud al- Werfalli, an ally of Libyan strongman General Khalifa Haftar, is suspected of war crimes for murde [...]
14 June 2017 by AFP
ICC calls for 'immediate arrest' of Kadhafi son The International Criminal Court chief's prosecutor on Wednesday called for the "immediate arrest and surrender" of Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly set free by a militia in Libya. An arrest warrant issued by [...]
8 June 2017 by AFP
Make migrant trafficking crime against humanity: police chiefs European police and naval chiefs on Thursday called for migrant trafficking of the kind currently taking place in Libya to be declared a crime against humanity. At talks in Rome, senior figures in the fight against the deadly trad [...]
6 June 2017 by Stéphanie Maupas, correspondent in The Hague
Will the ICC take up crimes against migrants in Libya?  Amid the chaos in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in April denounced a veritable “slave market” where migrants are being sold for forced labour or sexual exploitation. But will the ICC investigate? A few [...]
14 April 2017 by AFP
Libyan rivals clash in neglected south Libya's southern desert, long neglected by central authorities, risks becoming an arena for score-settling between rival governments vying for clout across the war-torn country, analysts say. Clashes erupted last week as forces lo [...]
22 March 2017 by Human Rights Watch
HRW : War Crimes in Libya as Benghazi Residents Flee Libyan National Army (LNA) forces may have committed war crimes, including killing and beating civilians, and summarily executing and desecrating bodies of opposition fighters in the eastern city of Benghazi on and around March 18 [...]
21 December 2016 by AFP
Disease and mines rule in Libya's former IS bastion In the district of Al-Giza al-Bahriya in Libya's Sirte, the sea breeze mingles with the stench of corpses decomposing under the rubble. The coastal neighbourhood was the last part of the Islamic State group's north African bastion [...]
22 November 2016 by AFP
ICC to probe Libya migrant trafficking Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court will probe the trafficking of migrants out of Libya to see if there is evidence of war crimes, the chief prosecutor told AFP Tuesday. With the situation in Libya "deteriorating," Fat [...]
11 November 2016 by Stéphanie Maupas, correspondent in The Hague
ICC Prosecutor sets Libya priority, including Gaddafi regime and crimes against migrants On November 9, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) went to the UN Security Council to present her 12th report on the situation in Libya. Fatou Bensouda says she plans to make Libya one of her priorities in 201 [...]
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