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Illegally detained, tortured and forcibly disappeared: the Il-Khwildy case

09.07.2008 ( Last modified: 18.07.2017 )

The Advocacy Center – TRIAL (ACT) has submitted an individual communication to the UN Human Rights Committee against Libya. The case relates to multiple and grave violations of the rights of Mr Abdussalam Il Khwildy.

The Advocay Center – TRIAL (ACT) and the organisation Al-Karama for Human Rights, representing Mr Il Khwildy’s brother, lodged an individual complaint against Libya before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in July 2008.

Mr Abdussalam Il Khwildy, was arbitrarily arrested by Libyan internal security agents in April 1998, suspected of aiding the author to escape from Libya in 1996, and kept in detention for over five years. He was kept in incommunicado detention and subjected to torture and ill-treatment (including being regularly viciously beaten).

After having been released in May 2003, he was arrested again by security agents on 17 October 2004. At the outcome of an unfair trial, conducted in complete disregard for the most basic judicial guarantees, he was sentenced by a special tribunal to two years’ imprisonment on 7 August 2006. During this period, his detention had continued, and he remained in prison until 17 October 2006.

Mr. Il Khwildy should have been freed on that day, but he was transferred to a different detention centre, where he was allowed to phone his father two days later; he said he expected to be released soon. He was instead retained, and his family was not informed of his situation until May 2008. The competent authorities denied holding the victim when asked by the latter’s relatives. Today, nearly two years after having served his sentence, he is still detained at the Abou Slim prison.

The Human Rights Committee has been requested to declare that Libya violated the fundamental rights of Mr Abdussalam Il Khwildy as well as his brother’s, and that, as a result, redress should be granted.

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