Human Rights Watch (HRW) has sounded the alarm over executions carried out by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), which controls eastern and southern Libya, following military trials the rights group described as grossly unfair. At least 31 people have been executed, while 50 or more other detainees face the risk of imminent execution.
The executions, carried out since late August 2026, are the first known cases of capital punishment in Libya since 2010, according to the international human rights organisation.
The LAAF, led by General Khalifa Haftar, announced earlier that 10 people had been executed by firing squad after being convicted of murder and terrorism-related offences.
HRW noted that the executions followed military proceedings characterised by secrecy, allegations of torture and serious violations of defendants’ rights to a fair trial.
The organisation also raised concerns that some of those executed had previously secured reductions of their death sentences to life imprisonment.
According to Bassam Khawaja, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Human Rights Watch, “the Libyan Arab Armed Forces are putting people to death after secret trials built on confessions allegedly extracted through torture, in courts that Libya’s own Supreme Court has said should not be trying civilians.”
“Every execution carried out under these conditions is an irreversible injustice and every government with influence over the LAAF should be pressing hard to stop the next one.”
Bassam Khawaja
Executions Follow Years of Contested Military Trials
Many of those executed had been arrested in Derna and Benghazi during or after the armed conflict between the LAAF and opposing armed groups from 2014 to 2018.
Between 2018 and 2021, military courts in eastern Libya convicted hundreds of civilians in secret proceedings that targeted people perceived to be critics of the LAAF. At least 22 defendants were sentenced to death during that period, according to Amnesty International.
Human rights organisations have raised concerns that many of the convictions relied on confessions allegedly obtained through torture by the Internal Security Agency, an armed group affiliated with the LAAF.
The recent executions have also drawn scrutiny because at least two death sentences had reportedly been reduced to life imprisonment on appeal by a higher military court in 2019. Despite those decisions, the defendants were executed in 2026.
The executions proceeded despite a November 2025 ruling by the constitutional chamber of Libya’s Supreme Court declaring Law No. 4/2017 unconstitutional insofar as it allows military courts to try civilians for terrorism and crimes against the state.
Local human rights groups have documented extensive procedural violations in the military trials. Proceedings were held in secret without prior notification, preventing defendants’ families, journalists and human rights organisations from attending.
Several defendants were reportedly denied access to lawyers of their choice. Others whose lawyers were permitted to represent them were prevented from meeting privately with their legal teams before and during proceedings.
The defendants were also reportedly denied meaningful opportunities to present their cases or challenge the evidence against them. Courts handed down verdicts without providing defendants or their lawyers with written, reasoned judgments.
HRW argued that the proceedings violated international fair-trial standards, which require defendants to be tried before independent and impartial tribunals.
Families Denied Notification as More Detainees Face Execution
According to Human Rights Watch, the manner in which the executions were conducted had compounded the suffering of relatives and raised additional concerns under international human rights law.
Families were reportedly not informed in advance that their relatives would be executed. Authorities also refused to hand over the bodies, required relatives to confirm the identities of those killed, and buried them without the families present.
The organisation warned that at least 50 people held at Gernada military prison remained at imminent risk of execution, increasing pressure on the LAAF and governments with influence over its leadership to intervene.
The United Nations and Libya’s internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), based in Tripoli, have condemned the executions.
Human Rights Watch Calls for Justice Reform and Death Penalty Moratorium
Human Rights Watch has called on authorities in both eastern and western Libya to restrict military courts’ jurisdiction to military offences committed by military personnel and end the prosecution of civilians before military tribunals.
It also urged the authorities to review cases involving civilians who had been wrongfully detained or prosecuted in military courts, providing appropriate remedies that could include release, transfer to civilian courts or retrial in accordance with international fair-trial standards.
The organisation stated that any retrial should account for time already served and provide defendants with the procedural protections required under international law.
HRW maintains that the death penalty should be abolished in all countries and under all circumstances, describing capital punishment as inherently inhumane, irreversible and vulnerable to arbitrariness, prejudice and error.
It noted that 92 countries had ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits participating states to abolish the death penalty.
The organisation called on Libya to abolish capital punishment and establish an immediate moratorium on all executions in the interim.
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