A Libyan diplomat who served as ambassador to France died less than 24 hours after he was detained by a Tripoli-based militia from the town of Zintan, Human Rights Watch said today. Dr. Omar Brebesh, who was detained on January 19, 2012, appears to have died from torture.
A preliminary autopsy report viewed by Human Rights Watch said the cause of death included multiple bodily injuries and fractured ribs. Photos of Brebesh’s body, seen by Human Rights Watch, show welts, cuts, and the apparent removal of toenails, indicating that he was tortured prior to death. Human Rights Watch also read a report by the judicial police in Tripoli, which said that Brebesh had died from torture and that an unnamed suspect had confessed to killing him.
“The torture and killing of detainees is sadly an ongoing activity by some Libyan militias,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “These abusive militias will keep torturing people until they are held to account. Libya’s leaders should show the political will to prosecute people who commit serious crimes, regardless of their role in the uprising.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed reports that a Zintan prosecutor has opened an investigation into Brebesh’s death and said it should be prompt and independent. Anyone found responsible should be punished to the full extent of the law, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Libyan government should send a message that it will not tolerate torture and vigilante justice,” Whitson said. “The rule of law, and punishment for crimes, apply to all Libyans, including those who fought against Muammar Gaddafi.”
Brebesh, 62, served in the Libyan embassy to France from 2004 to 2008, first as cultural attaché, and then as acting ambassador for the last nine months of his tour. He continued work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Gaddafi government during the 2011 uprising. He was working as a lawyer at the ministry in Tripoli under the post-Gaddafi transitional government at the time of his death. An official at the ministry told Human Rights Watch that he saw Brebesh at work 10 days before his death, and he appeared to be in good health.
According to Brebesh’s son Ziad, on January 19, his father voluntarily submitted to an investigation by the Al-Shohada Ashura militia at their base in the Tripoli neighborhood of Crimea. Brebesh had been called there for questioning by Commander Khalid al-Blehzi.
Brebesh entered the base at 5:30 p.m., said Ziad, who escorted his father. Ziad said he stayed inside for tea before being told to wait outside for the interrogation. After about 45 minutes, militia members took Ziad away to retrieve one of the family cars and a firearm. He returned later that night but was prevented from entering the area where his father was being interrogated.
The next day, January 20, following a visit to the Al-Shohada Ashura base, the family heard that Brebesh’s body had appeared at a hospital in Zintan, about 100 km southwest of Tripoli. Ziad’s brother Muhammad went there in the evening and described what he saw:
I saw his face. There was blood on his nose and mouth. But I didn’t see the rest of his body or his face from the other side. There was a bump on his forehead. After that, I kissed him and that was it. Later, when we saw the other side of his face at the hospital in Tripoli, it looked like his jaw was broken, like his face was not in the right place.
Human Rights Watch viewed photographs of Brebesh’s body provided by the family. They revealed welts and extensive bruising on the abdomen, lacerations on both legs, and a large wound on the sole of the left foot. Some of his toenails appear to have been removed.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Libya currently has about 8,500 detainees in roughly 60 facilities. The majority of these facilities are run by militias with informal relationships to the state. The government should accelerate its efforts to bring all detainees under its authority, and give them prompt judicial reviews, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch has documented several incidents of torture and abuse by Libyan armed groups in recent months.
On January 26, the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontières announced that it had suspended its work in Misrata detention centers, citing torture and abuse there.
Are so supposed to be outraged by this or something?? The only thing I’m outraged about is how the hell he was given a job with the NTC after supporting Gadaffi throughout the war.
Oh relax, he just fell down the stairs.
Stupid HRW alway gets things wrong.
So if HRW get’s things wrong, what really happened? Perhaps someone from Zintan militias can answer?
Who cares?
Answer: No none. The man was a fascist – Libyans are happy he’s dead. If HRW likes fascists so much let them adopt them all and have them live in their own homes with their wifes and children – oh yeah let the HRW take them into their own homes.
Torture before execution is a good punishment for evil fascists. Torture is really under appreciated. – too many Dorothys coming out of Kansas these days. Lets have a big hand for the Dorothys and welcome them all to the real world!!!
Like Gaddafi so the Libyans.
To answer Paul, Libyans are not like Gaddfi, Libyans has been tortured for forty two yeares, I have not heared Humman right group sounding the alarm as I hear it now. When Gadafi was raping our women, some women from the so Called Humman right group denied that because Gadafi was still in power. My suggestion is for the Humman right group need to go through the new government chanles like what they use to do in Gadafi’s era, then determin before sounding the alarm. I am always wondering if the Humman right group working for the victum or their own agendas. long live Libya free with no Gadafi’s the tryrant. thank you
Actually check your facts. HRW has for years on numerous occasions spoken out against the Gaddhafi regime. check their website for proof: http://www.hrw.org/by-issue/publications/232
And anyways if the new regime does the same as the old, it will be the same. One evil does not justify another. Soon we will be hearing about corruption and nepotism just like we did during previous regime. I am glad Gadhafi is dead and support the revolution, I supported the brigades throughout 2011. But it does not mean that now it is their turn to be bad.
Excuses are just that, excuses. Real men don’t torture they set standards for themselves and live and die by them.
The standards of Libyans are the same standards as Gaddafi. If the Libyans really hated Gaddafis methods for suppression them, why are they then using these methods themselves?
It’s no different from Iraq. Before Sunni/Baath party people where the torturers but now it’s the Kurds and Shia who dish out the pain.
Since the beginning of the Libyan uprise the Subhuman Crimes Watch has been reporting crap against the rebels. The HCW have not been helpful.
Why would the rebels arrest a Libyan diplomat ?
This story is not confirmed.
If you continue to deny wrongdoings despite evidence contrary, why bother with the revolution? We did not fight the dictatorship and lose our brothers and sisters to see this new Libya, that like the previous regime does not respect human rights. Good that Gadhaffi is dead, good that we won the revolution, and good that traitors are not allowed back in and into government. But if we behave with violence disregarding human rights, we are the same as our enemies.
Justice can be had without vengence. It sad, tragic, and maddening to learn that when people are in custody they end up being dead needlessly. This is what happened to my father in the early 80s, when the so-called revolutonaries came to take his property against his will. This also happened to my two uncles. When interrogations get out of hand and the darkside of the shadow takes over, someone will die.
These isolated incidents are beginning to look like a trend that will derail the essence of what everyone of us has been fighting against in the first place: and that is, lest we forget, tyranny!
Please stop this sensless madness.
Puttin gthe boots to a fascsit loyalist is not tyranny. Stop being so hysterical.
Fadscsits have condemned themselves. Tehy force free peopel to kill them or else tehy kill free people. Once they have become fascsits they no longer are human beings – they have abrogated all right and participation in human destiny by virtue of a decision that they themselves made,
Sounds OK to me – the money goes to Libyans He might as well be of some use to his victims through his death – they should chop up his bones and sell them on Ebay and give the proceed s to the wounded and the families of the martyrs.
I see the article ahas a Western Anti-Revolution slant , These interventionists never cease trying to mess up the Libyan Revolution – can’t they go do something appropriate to their own lives – like torture small animals?
It was justice – the best kind.
Get over it and face up to the real world ANDget some maturity.
Ghrama, is blood money. No amounts of it can up make for the pain and suffering that human beings endure when their realtives are killed at the hands of vengeful little tyrants masking themselves as the custodians of justice. You proposition to chop peoples and sell them on E-bay, leads me to believe that vengenance is your way of making reparations. If isnot!
A dose of little history may help. ‘Yesterday”, a libyan for no apparent reason that an innoucous complaint for his rights was taken from his home, never to be heard from again. His vile capture did everthing to him. No one held them accountable. “To-day”, the same pattern of vile vagabonds masking themselves as the authorties of justice took a former ambassador in custody and hastened his untimely death without a formal charge. Tommorrow, it may be you, me, him or her… It maybe someone from Benghazi, Tripoli, Tarhuna, Misrata, Zintan…Hell, for all we know, it could be someone we currently respect and admire and is a revolutionary like Mr. Terbil – the attorney who was the catalyst for this revolutiuon to happen.
When will this unwarranted and self righteous sense of perverted justice stop? And who will stop these self progessed “Judges”- Vile thugs they are. Who will they come after next? Does this make sense for you!
Does this help you help yourself from unwarrated vengencance, and bring forth a dose of healthy maturity with all the realities you self- profess?