On 9 December 2024, Alkarama addressed the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the detention of two brothers, Aboubakr and Embarek AL KHAZMI, following their arrest by Misrata forces on 7 September 2021.
Disappeared after their arrest
The victims were arrested at their family home in Beni Walid (180 km south-west of Tripoli) by several members of the Misrata Combined Forces, who were hooded, armed and dressed in military uniforms. After surrounding the house, they fired through the door, wounding Embarek Al-Khazmi in the foot. The two brothers were then taken by force to an unknown destination and held incommunicado for several weeks in isolation cells, completely cut off from the outside world. It was not until several weeks later that their families learned that they were being held in Misrata prison and were allowed to visit them.
In February 2023, during a new attempt to visit them, the family was informed that the two brothers had been transferred to Tripoli the previous month, without any information about their new place of detention. Despite appeals to the Tripoli public prosecutor, the authorities continued to refuse to disclose their place of detention, let alone allow the family to visit them.
Faced with this silence, the family sought the assistance of Alkarama, which urgently referred the case to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on August 14, 2023. On October 2, 2023, the two brothers, who were being held at the Mitiga detention center, were finally brought before the Tripoli court.
Arbitrary detention denounced by Alkarama
In its submission to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Alkarama highlighted the serious violations of the fundamental rights of the Al-Khazmi brothers, in particular their arrest without warrant followed by prolonged incommunicado detention and their unfair trial, all of which constitute violations by Libya of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which it is a party.
Alkarama calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the brothers
For these reasons, Alkarama has called on the independent experts of the Working Group to urge the Libyan authorities to release Aboubakr and Embarek Al-Khazmi immediately and unconditionally, and to launch an independent investigation to establish responsibility for the flagrant human rights violations of which they are victims.