File no. | 01/11 |
---|---|
Referred by | UN Security Council |
Date referred | 26 February 2011 |
Date opened | 3 March 2011 |
Incident(s) | First Libyan Civil War Second Libyan Civil War |
Crimes | Crimes against humanity: · Murder · Imprisonment · Torture · Persecution · Inhumane acts War crimes: · Murder · Torture · Cruel Treatment · Outrage upon dignity |
Status of suspects | |
Muammar Gaddafi | Deceased |
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi | Fugitive |
Abdullah Senussi | Charges dismissed |
Tohami Khaled | Deceased |
Mahmoud al-Werfalli | Deceased |
The International Criminal Court investigation in Libya or the Situation in Libya is an investigation started in March 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes and crimes against humanity claimed to have occurred in Libya since 15 February 2011. [1] The initial context of the investigation was the 2011 Libyan Civil War and the time frame of the investigation continued to include the 2019 Western Libya offensive. [2]
The ICC investigation in Libya was initiated by the February 2011 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 [1] in the context of the 2011 Libyan Civil War. The pre-trial chamber judges are Péter Kovács (presiding), Marc Perrin de Brichambaut and Reine Alapini-Gansou. [1]
Investigations started during the First Libyan Civil War, in 2011, led to several arrest warrants. [3]
On 27 June 2011, the ICC issued warrants of arrest for the Libyan head of state, Muammar Gaddafi, for his second son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and for Abdullah Senussi, Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief and brother-in-law, married to Muammar Gaddafi's sister-in-law, for murders and persecution of unarmed civilians as crimes against humanity under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute. The case against Muammar Gaddafi was closed by the ICC shortly after his death. [3]
As of 9 May 2018 [update] , the ICC had outstanding warrants for the arrest of Tohami Khaled, former head of the Internal Security Agency of Libya during the final years of the Muammar Gaddafi government; and of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, both of whom were believed by the ICC to remain at large. [4] Saif al-Islam Gaddafi had been captured in Zintan in 2014 and rumoured to have been released in June 2018. [5]
The ICC claims against Abdullah Senussi were concluded in July 2014 on the grounds that his case was being tried in Libyan courts [3] and as of 9 May 2018 [update] , continued to monitor the progress of the Libyan legal proceedings against him. [4]
Investigations by the ICC continued during the Second Libyan Civil War, which started in 2014. [4]
In April 2019, during the 2019 Western Libya offensive, ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda stated that both those directly committing war crimes in Libya during the conflict and their commanders would be liable to prosecution by the ICC, including anyone "ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing in any other manner to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court". [6] Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) stated on 17 April that the GNA would provide documentation to the ICC regarding the 16 April Grad shelling of residential areas [7] that killed at least seven people and wounded 17, [8] for which he attributed responsibility to Khalifa Haftar, leader of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). [9] On 2 May, a spokesperson for the GNA, Muhanad Younis, stated that administrative responsibility had been allocated for documenting war crimes during the Western Libya offensive and providing the documentation to the ICC. [10]
As of 6 April 2019 [update] , the ICC had two outstanding warrants for the arrest of LNA commander Mahmoud al-Werfalli, for involvement in seven alleged executions in and near Benghazi of 33 people during June 2016 to July 2017 [11] and for allegedly executing ten people "in front of a cheering crowd" in Benghazi between 23 and 25 January 2018. [4] As of November 2017 [update] , the LNA had claimed that al-Werfalli had been arrested and was being investigated by military authorities, while the ICC believed that he was not under arrest and was commanding the al-Saiqa brigade of the LNA. [4] In February 2018, information about al-Werfalli's arrest status was unclear, and an Interpol red notice for his arrest was issued. [4] On 15 June 2022, the ICC dropped its case against al-Werfalli, more than a year after he was killed in Benghazi. [12]
Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi is a Libyan political figure. He is the second son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his second wife Safia Farkash. He was a part of his father's inner circle, performing public relations and diplomatic roles on his behalf. He publicly turned down his father's offer of the country's second highest post and held no official government position. According to United States Department of State officials in Tripoli, during his father's reign, he was the second most widely recognized person in Libya, being at times the de facto prime minister, and was mentioned as a possible successor, though he rejected this. An arrest warrant was issued for him on 27 June 2011 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for charges of crimes against humanity against the Libyan people, for killing and persecuting civilians, under Articles 7(1)(a) and 7(1)(h) of the Rome statute. He denied the charges.
The Libyan Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Libyan Armed Forces. In 2010, before the First Libyan Civil War, the Libyan Air Force personnel strength was estimated at 18,000, with an inventory of 374 combat-capable aircraft operating from 13 military airbases in Libya. Since the aftermath first civil war in 2011 and the outbreak of the Second Libyan Civil War, multiple factions fighting in Libya have been in possession of military aircraft. As of 2019, the Libyan Air Force is nominally under the control of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord in Tripoli, though the rival Libyan National Army of Marshal Khalifa Haftar also has a significant air force. In 2021, the air force was under command of the new President of Libya, Mohamed al-Menfi that replaced Fayez al-Sarraj.
Luis Moreno Ocampo is an Argentine lawyer who served as the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2003 to 2012. Previously, he had played a major role in Argentina's democratic transition (1983–1991).
Abdullah Senussi is a Libyan national who was the intelligence chief and brother-in-law of former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. He was married to Gaddafi's sister-in-law.
Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Omar Haftar is a Libyan politician, military officer, and the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). In 2015, he was appointed commander of the Armed forces loyal to the elected legislative body, the Libyan House of Representatives.
Silvia Alejandra Fernández de Gurmendi is an Argentine lawyer, diplomat and judge. She was a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 18 November 2009 to 10 March 2018 and was the first woman President of the ICC from March 2015 to March 2018. In 2020 she was elected to serve as President of the Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for the twentieth to twenty-second sessions (2021-2023).
The Libyan Armed Forces or the Libyan Arab Armed Forces are, in principle, the state organisation responsible for the military defence of Libya, including ground, air and naval forces.
The Libyan National Army or the Libyan Arab Army is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar when he was nominated to the role on 2 March 2015 by the House of Representatives, consisting at the time of a ground force, an air force and a navy.
The Libyan Special Forces (LSF), also known as the Al-Saiqa or Saiqa Special Forces and simply Saiqa or Al-Saiqa, are an elite Libyan National Army unit formed from a mixture of paratroopers, paramilitary forces and commandos. Prominent LSF commander Mahmoud al-Werfalli was indicted in 2017 and 2018 by the International Criminal Court for the war crime of murdering and ordering the murders of non-combatants, and was assassinated in 2021.
The Libyan civil war (2014–2020), also known as the Second Libyan Civil War, was a multilateral civil war which was fought in Libya among a number of armed groups, but mainly the House of Representatives (HoR) and the Government of National Accord (GNA), for six years from 2014 to 2020.
The Libyan crisis is the current humanitarian crisis and political-military instability occurring in Libya, beginning with the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which led to two civil wars, foreign military intervention, and the ousting and death of Muammar Gaddafi. The first civil war's aftermath and proliferation of armed groups led to violence and instability across the country, which erupted into renewed civil war in 2014. The second war lasted until October 23, 2020, when all parties agreed to a permanent ceasefire and negotiations.
This is a detailed timeline of the Libyan civil war (2014–2020) which lasted from 2014 to 2020.
Tohami Mohamed Khaled was the head of the Internal Security Agency of Libya during the final years of the government of Muammar Gaddafi. He was indicted in the International Criminal Court in 2013 on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed during the First Libyan Civil War.
Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al-Werfalli was a Libyan general, commander in al-Saiqa, an elite unit of the Libyan National Army, one of the warring factions in Libya's civil war since 2014. Al-Werfalli was indicted in 2017 in the International Criminal Court for the war crimes of murder and ordering the murder of non-combatants under article 8(2)(c)(i) of the Rome Statute. As of 6 April 2019, the ICC had two outstanding warrants for al-Werfalli's arrest. He was assassinated on 24 March 2021 in Benghazi.
In late January 2019, the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to take control of the city of Sabha and the rest of southern Libya from the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and local factions. Officially, the LNA announced that the reason for the operation was to remove terrorists, Chadian rebel groups, and secure the border, but it expanded Haftar's territorial control and acquired him oil fields near Sabha. It also restarted some interethnic conflicts as the LNA had allied with local Arab tribes, while the Tuareg and Toubou tribal militias were loyal to the GNA.
The Western Libya campaign was a military campaign initiated on 4 April 2019 by the Operation Flood of Dignity of the Libyan National Army (LNA), which represents the Libyan House of Representatives, to capture the western region of Libya and eventually the capital Tripoli held by the United Nations Security Council-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). The GNA regained control over all of Tripoli in June 2020 and the LNA forces withdrew from the capital, after fourteen months of fighting.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, on 20 December 2019 announced an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed in Palestine by members of the Israeli military and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups since 13 June 2014.
This is the order of battle for the Western Libya campaign, codenamed "Operation Flood of Dignity" by forces under Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. The forces supporting Haftar and the House of Representatives, mainly the Libyan National Army, are opposed by the armed forces of the forces loyal to the Government of National Accord, including the Libyan Army and the Tripoli Protection Force.
Tayeb el-Safi is a Libyan political operative. He briefly served as Minister of Economy & Trade and was one of the closest aides of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during the Libyan Civil War. In the 1980s, he had several international postings, primarily in Europe, at a time when many anti-Gaddafi dissidents were being assassinated extrajudicially abroad as a result of Gaddafi's "stray dog" policy.