TRIPOLI – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has issued a scathing report revealing that at least 31 individuals have been executed in eastern Libya since late August 2026, marking the first instances of state-sanctioned capital punishment in the country since 2010. The executions, carried out by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) under the command of General Khalifa Haftar, have drawn intense condemnation from international observers and human rights advocates.
According to HRW, the victims were executed by firing squad following secret military trials that lacked even the most basic judicial safeguards. Reports indicate that the convictions were based on confessions allegedly extracted through severe physical torture. The individuals—eight from Derna and twenty-three from Benghazi—were accused of murder and terrorism-related offenses stemming from conflicts between the LAAF and opposing factions between 2014 and 2018.
“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,” said Bassam Khawaja, HRW’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “Every execution carried out under these circumstances is an irreversible injustice.”
The legal legitimacy of these proceedings is deeply contested. In 2025, Libya’s Supreme Court ruled that the prosecution of civilians in military courts for terrorism-related crimes is unconstitutional. Despite this, the LAAF’s Supreme Military Court has continued to process detainees, effectively operating as a parallel security apparatus that rivals the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU).
The situation for those remaining in custody is dire. Advocacy groups warn that at least 50 additional detainees held in the Gernada military prison have been sentenced to death and remain at imminent risk of execution.
Libya has remained politically fractured since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi. While a 2020 ceasefire agreement largely halted open warfare, the country remains plagued by militia violence and the systemic erosion of civil liberties. The LAAF, which dominates eastern and southern regions, has increasingly consolidated power, often ignoring the directives of the central government.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the GNU have joined HRW in calling for an immediate moratorium on all executions. These developments come at a volatile time for the North African nation. Only last month, the UN Security Council praised a new political agreement aimed at organizing national elections, a process General Haftar has ostensibly endorsed.
However, observers argue that the latest wave of executions casts a long shadow over these peace efforts. As militias and armed factions continue to compete for territorial control, the international community now faces mounting pressure to intervene and prevent further loss of life at the hands of military courts that appear increasingly untethered from the rule of law.
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