Alkarama is closely monitoring with grave concern the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Egyptian national Mahmoud Mohamed Fathi Badr, who was apprehended by the Libyan authorities together with his wife on the evening of 19 July 2026 at their place of residence, Al Tawfiq Hotel, in the Al Dhahra district of Tripoli. Alkarama warns the Libyan authorities against any surrender of Mr Fathi to Egypt and recalls the binding obligations incumbent upon them under international law.
Facts
According to the information available to Alkarama, officers of the Libyan General Intelligence Service arrested Mr Mahmoud Fathi Badr and his wife—both holders of Egyptian and Turkish nationality—from their residence in Tripoli, without disclosing their place of detention or allowing them to communicate with their relatives or legal counsel. Alkarama has further received information indicating that Mrs Fathi was released on the evening of 21 July, while Mr Fathi remains subjected to enforced disappearance to date.
The arrest took place while Abdelmajid Ibrahim Abdelkarim Mligta was serving as President of the Libyan General Intelligence Service in Tripoli, where the events occurred. Alkarama recalls that responsibility for ensuring Mr Fathi’s safety and physical integrity, and for preventing any measure that could expose him to the risk of torture or forcible transfer, rests directly with the security agencies operating in the area where he was arrested, foremost among them the General Intelligence Service, as well as with the Presidential Council and the Government of National Unity in their capacity as the executive authorities responsible for overseeing the security services in Tripoli.
International legal framework
Libya ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 16 May 1989 and is therefore bound by all obligations arising therefrom, in particular Article 3, which expressly prohibits any State party from expelling, returning or extraditing a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture. In determining whether such grounds exist, the competent authorities are required to take into account all relevant considerations, including, where applicable, the existence in the receiving State of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.
Alkarama further recalls that the principle of non-refoulement constitutes a peremptory norm of customary international law from which no derogation is permitted, including in the context of counter-terrorism.
The real risks facing Mr Fathi in the event of his surrender to Egypt
In Egypt, Mr Mahmoud Fathi Badr is subject to a death sentence imposed in absentia following proceedings that failed to meet the guarantees of a fair trial, in addition to several other convictions carrying life imprisonment and lengthy custodial sentences. He is also listed among the persons sought by the Egyptian authorities.
United Nations human rights mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteurs on human rights and counter-terrorism and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, have documented the systematic use of counter-terrorism legislation in Egypt to restrict the exercise of fundamental rights, in a context characterised by risks of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and violations of fair trial guarantees.
Against this well-documented background, any retrial of Mr Fathi or enforcement of the death sentence imposed on him in absentia would expose him to a real risk of serious human rights violations. Accordingly, his surrender to the Egyptian authorities would constitute a manifest breach of Libya’s obligations under the Convention against Torture.
Alkarama’s requests
Alkarama calls upon the Libyan authorities, namely the Presidential Council, the Government of National Unity and the General Intelligence Service, to refrain immediately and unequivocally from surrendering, deporting or otherwise transferring Mr Mahmoud Fathi Badr and his wife to Egypt, or to any third State from which they could be returned to Egypt, in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention against Torture.
Alkarama further calls upon the authorities to immediately disclose Mr Fathi’s place of detention, bring his enforced disappearance to an end, ensure that he is granted prompt and unrestricted access to his family and to legal counsel of his own choosing, and initiate an independent, impartial and transparent investigation into the circumstances of their arrest in order to identify with precision the authorities responsible for ordering and carrying out the operation.
Finally, Alkarama states that it will continue to pursue this case closely before the relevant United Nations human rights mechanisms, in particular the Committee against Torture and the competent Special Rapporteurs, and will undertake urgent representations before the Libyan authorities to prevent any surrender of the victim to the Egyptian authorities.