Libya: UN Working Group seized of cases of abduction in Beni Walid of the two brothers Aboubakr and Embarek AL KHAZMI

On 14 August 2023, Alkarama urgently addressed the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances regarding the disappearance of the two brothers Aboubakr and Embarek AL KHAZMI after their arrest by the combined forces of Misrata on 7 September 2021 at their family home located in Beni Walid (180 km southwest of Tripoli). 

Disappeared after arrest 

The AL KHAZMI brothers were arrested on 7 September 2021 at the family home by several members of the combined forces of Misrata, in military uniform and hooded. They arrived in several vehicles, surrounded the family home and tried to break down the iron door that was closed before shooting through Aboubakr AL KHAZMI in the foot. 

The soldiers, who did not present any document or refer to any warrant from the prosecutor, took the two brothers to Misrata (200 km west of Tripoli) where they were placed in isolation cells totally cut off from the outside world. After a few weeks, however, they were visited by their parents. 

In February 2022, the parents went to the prison to visit them again but were surprised to learn from the administration that the two brothers had been transferred to Tripoli without further details. They have had no news of their fate since that date. 

Denial of authorities 

Following the transfer, the family first went to the office of the Prosecutor General of Tripoli, Mr. Sadek Essour, to inquire about the place of their detention. The deputy prosecutor informed them that they had indeed been transferred to Tripoli the previous January without further details, refusing to disclose their whereabouts or allow them to visit them. 

The family then visited the various official prisons in Tripoli as well as the Mitiga military base where the Radaa militia is also holding many people. However, no detention centre has acknowledged their presence. 

Alkarama refers the case to the Working Group 

Faced with the authorities' denial, Alkarama, mandated by the victims' family, urgently addressed the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances and called on the experts to urge the Libyan authorities to reveal the fate of the two disappeared.