The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) is following with extreme concern implementation of death sentences handed down by the Libyan judiciary against four Egyptians. The sentences were carried out by firing squad after the men were found guilty of criminal charges, despite the Libyan President’s demand for the abolition of the death penalty.
The death sentences were carried out following verdicts handed down in 2004 against fifteen Egyptians. Implementation of the sentences was halted temporarily while the victims’ families were consulted as to what penalties they wished the guilty men to suffer. The families were in favour of the death penalty and refused reconciliation under Libyan penal code provisions.
Despite urgent appeals by ACIJLP and the condemned men’s families to the Egyptian government to exert efforts in order to bring about reconciliation with the victims’ families and stop implementation of the death sentences, the Egyptian government did not take measures of any effect.
ACIJLP lays responsibility for lobbying the Libyan government to stop the implementation of this series of executions with the Egyptian government, and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
ACIJLP has strong doubts that these sentences were handed down after trails which lacked guarantees of a fair and just trial. The Libyan judicial system is in need of fundamental reform in order to ensure basic opportunities for a defence and appeal of verdicts according to established fair trial standards.
ACIJLP is of the opinion that the application of such a serious punishment in the absence of guarantees of a fair and just trial and without the intervention of the Egyptian government constitute a misuse of the death penalty and a threat to the right to life. It urges the Libyan President to personally intervene in order to stop these violations of the right to life and spare the blood of these Egyptian workers in Libya.
ACIJLP equally urges the Libyan Association for Human Rights, headed by Seif al Islam al Qaddafi to immediately intervene in order to put an end to such sentences which are becoming a regular occurrence. ACIJLP asks international and regional bodies and the United Nations Human Rights Commission to lobby the Libyan authorities immediately in order to stop implementation of the death sentences against the Egyptians.
