Amesys (Nexa Technologies)

FACTS

In 2007, AMESYS signed a contract with the government of Libya to provide surveillance technologies for the purposes of intercepting communication and processing and analyzing data. These materials allegedly allowed the Muammar Gaddafi regime to repress the opposition and to commit serious instances of human rights abuse.

In March 2014, NEXA TECHNOLOGIES allegedly sold a similar surveillance system to the Egyptian government. These materials allegedly facilitated widespread repression by the Al-Sissi regime including the brutal arrest, detention and torture of political opponents and human rights activists.

LEGAL PROCEDURE

On 19 October 2011, the FIDH and the LDH lodged a criminal complaint as civil parties before the investigating judge at the Paris High Court (Tribunal de Grand Instance de Paris) against AMESYS and its management, denouncing their alleged role as accomplices in acts of torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment in Libya, on the basis of universal jurisdiction.

On 26 March 2012, the Office of the Prosecutor at the Paris High Court issued an order not to open a criminal investigation, arguing that there were insufficient grounds to open an investigation. However, the investigating judge of the specialized unit decided on 23 May 2012 to open a formal criminal investigation. On 15 January 2013, the Paris Court of Appeal (Cour d’Appel de Paris) decided to allow the investigation to proceed.

In January 2013, five Libyan victims joined the proceedings as civil parties. They were heard in June and July 2013 by the specialized unit. Another Libyan victim joined the case and was heard by the investigating judge on 11 December 2015.

In March 2016 it was revealed that new evidence consisting of dozens of documents from Muammar Gaddafi’s security services had come to light, reportedly showing the regime’s extensive use of the surveillance technologies provided by AMESYS to track, arrest, and torture political opposition.

On 30 May 2017, AMESYS was formally assigned the status of assisted witness (“témoin assisté) for complicity in torture committed in Libya between 2007 and 2011.

On 5 July 2017, the French media published a report revealing that AMESYS (which became NEXA TECHNOLOGIES) had supplied a similar surveillance system to the Egyptian government in March 2014.

On 9 November 2017, the FIDH and its member organization in France, the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (LDH), filed a criminal complaint for alleged complicity in international crimes as a result of providing surveillance technologies to the Al-Sissi regime. A judicial investigation into the allegations was opened in December 2017.

In 2020, a judicial request for cooperation was sent to the Libyan judiciary in order to interrogate key witnesses.