Alkarama has learned from its sources that several militias affiliated with General Khalifa Haftar are holding Syrian nationals hostage and conditioning their release on official recognition by the new Syrian government. This situation concerns in particular five young men whose cases had already been submitted by Alkarama to the relevant United Nations special procedures.
The new Syrian government has established, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a commission tasked with monitoring the situation of its nationals detained in Libya. This commission travelled to Tripoli and Benghazi. However, according to consistent sources, the efforts undertaken to secure the release of Syrian citizens have encountered political demands and conditions imposed by several militias affiliated with General Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi, which further reinforces the conclusion that the detention of these Syrians lacks any legal basis.
For its part, Alkarama has once again referred these developments to United Nations human rights mechanisms.
By way of reminder, on Wednesday, 18 June 2025, Alkarama submitted an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), as well as to other UN mechanisms, concerning five Syrian nationals abducted on 11 December 2024 in Benghazi, eastern Libya, by several militias affiliated with General Khalifa Haftar and his sons.
Alkarama also seized, in this regard, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, as well as the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
This constitutes the second action undertaken by Alkarama concerning these five Syrian citizens, who remain without news and deprived of all contact with their families, and whose last known location is the Qarnada military prison.
The victims—namely Ahmad ALOTHMAN, Ali ALSALKHADI, Anas Mohammed Ali ALSALKHADI, Khaled ALSALKHADI, and Osama Mohammed Sayfeddeen ALSHADIDI—are among the millions of Syrians who fled the armed conflict in their country. They entered Libya through regular channels, holding valid Syrian passports and ordinary entry visas, before settling in Benghazi, where they lived and worked in a stable manner.
Like many Syrians around the world, they expressed their joy following the departure of Bashar al-Assad, reviving hopes of an imminent return to Syria. It was in this context that they participated in a peaceful gathering, before being arrested without a warrant by plainclothes security agents.
Following their arrest, their families were left without any news, plunged into deep anxiety regarding their fate. It was only through the testimony of a former detainee that they eventually learned of their detention at the Qarnada facility, the deterioration of their health, and the acts of torture to which they had been subjected. They were accused, without any evidence, of belonging to a terrorist group and were forced, under torture, to make confessions.
Alkarama’s Advocacy
On 18 February 2025, Alkarama submitted a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concerning this case, initially highlighting the arbitrary nature of the victims’ detention on several grounds.
Alkarama emphasized that their arrest lacked any legal basis: the victims were arrested without a warrant, were not informed of the reasons for their arrest, and were deprived of legal representation or any appearance before a judicial authority. It stressed that this deprivation of liberty resulted directly from the exercise of fundamental rights, in particular freedom of opinion and the right to peaceful assembly, as guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Moreover, the victims were denied any legal assistance and never had access to an independent authority to challenge the legality of their detention, in clear violation of their right to a fair trial. Finally, this detention rests on a discriminatory basis, as their Syrian origin alone led the militias to wrongly associate them with a terrorist group.
For all these reasons, Alkarama called on the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to engage with the Libyan authorities in order to obtain official information on the fate and whereabouts of the five disappeared persons, and to demand their immediate release as well as full respect for their fundamental rights.