Six Libyans are facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity and proselytizing under laws increasingly being used to silence civil society and human rights organizations, advocates have said.
The women and men — some from Libya’s minority ethnic groups, including the Amazigh, or Berbers, in the west of the country — were separately detained in March by security forces.
A US citizen was arrested by Libya’s Internal Security Agency (ISA) last month, but was released and is understood to have left the country.
The six Libyans have been charged under article 207 of the penal code, which punishes any attempt to circulate views that aim to “alter fundamental constitutional principles, or the fundamental structures of the social order,” or overthrow the state, and anyone who possess books, leaflets, drawings, slogans “or any other items” that promote their cause.
The ISA said in a statement that the arrests were to “stop an organized gang action aiming to solicit and to make people leave Islam.”
A lawyer for one of the detainees said their families discovered they had been arrested when videos of their confessions were posted online by the ISA.
One of the videos showed Seyfao Madi, an engineer and father of one child, confessing that he converted to Christianity in 2017 and had tried to convert others.
His face unclear in the video, Madi said: “I was born in 1977 and I was arrested by the Internal Security Unit for converting to Christianity. I joined a group of Libyans and foreigners inside Libya calling and circulating for Christianity.”
“In 2016, my friend introduced me to other friends, among them a Christian from the US. We talked and discussed ... then I converted the next year and he baptized me,” he said.
His lawyer, Wail Ben-Ismail, said Madi renounced his Christian faith under torture.
According to the human rights organization Humanists International, Libya’s legislation is largely based around religion. An interim constitution, written after the ousting of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, guarantees non-Muslims the freedom to practice their faith.
However, continuing political fighting between the internationally backed Islamist government in Tripoli and the secular government in Tobruk means the constitution has been suspended.
“There has been an increase in the usage of article 207 against civil society activists and international organizations in Libya over the last year,” said Noura Eljerbi, a human rights advocate who was forced into exile after receiving death threats for her work.
“Even now I keep being threatened for only defending freedom of beliefs. Society doesn’t accept discussions about freedom of beliefs,” she said.
“Before the arrest of those people, there was a fierce campaign against them on social media led by former regime supporters,” she added.
Last year, seven advocates were arrested by the ISA for alleged atheism. Two of them were released, but the rest of the group are still behind bars.
A number of Libyan human rights advocates have been killed or have had to flee the country. Those who remain work undercover for safety.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS