UN demands handover of Libya commander after new killings
TRIPOLI/TUNIS: The UN demanded on Thursday the immediate surrender of a Benghazi commander wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges after evidence emerged suggesting he had carried out new summary executions in Libya.
The UN Libya mission, UNSMIL, suggested in a tweet that the gunman was Mahmoud Al-Werfalli, a special forces commander wanted by ICC for allegedly carrying out a number of similar killings.
“(The UN) demands the handing over of Mahmoud Al-Werfalli immediately to (the ICC) as it documented at least 5 similar cases, in 2017 alone, carried out or ordered by Al-Werfalli,” UNSMIL said on its Twitter account.
“Those responsible for committing or ordering summary executions are criminally liable under international law.”
The UN Libya mission said it was alarmed by reports of “brutal and outrageous summary executions” in the eastern city of Benghazi on Wednesday, after pictures emerged appearing to show at least nine people being shot dead at the site of a twin car bombing.
The photos, which were posted on social media and in local media, appear to show executions in front of Benghazi’s Bayaat Al-Radwan mosque, where a twin car bombing left at least 35 people dead.
One of the pictures shows a gunman dressed in military camouflage, pointing a weapon at the head of the first of a row of blindfolded men kneeling in blue jumpsuits in front of damaged mosque gates.
Another photo shows all but three of the people slumped forward on the road as the gunman makes his way along the line. It was unclear who the men were.
Al-Werfalli commands an elite unit, Al-Saiqa Brigade, attached to Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls Benghazi whose forces dominate the east of the North African country.
When the ICC issued a warrant for Al-Werfalli’s arrest last August over summary executions in which at least 33 people were killed in 2016 and 2017, Haftar’s forces insisted he was in their custody and would face a military trial.