The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) urges the Libyan authorities to annul the procedures taken by the Libyan prison authorities to hold the Egyptians condemned to death in isolation, deny them contact with the outside world, place them in solitary confinement and deny them contact with their lawyers and relatives. The condemned men, who are being held in Benghazi’s Kofaya Prison, began a hunger strike on the 8th January 2008 in an attempt to stop the implementation of this decision by the Libyan authorities.
ACIJLP fears that this decision was taken in response to a segment of a television programme in which one of the condemned men described the problems connected with their case – some of the men have had their sentences reduced and have won the right to be released but remain in detention despite this.
ACIJLP urges the Libyan authorities concerned to annul the decision to isolate the Egyptians imprisoned in Libya and deny them contact with the outside world. The Libyan authorities must abide by its international obligations under associated international treaties, in particular articles 11 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Libya ratified on 15th May 1970, and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners approved by two decisions of the Economic and Social Committee on 31st July 1957 and 13th May 1977.
ACIJLP believes that this decision represents one of the most serious obstacles to negotiation, reconciliation and dialogue between their legal representatives.
ACIJLP urges the Libyan authorities to annul the decision to isolate the Egyptians and deny them contact with the outside world. It urges the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to intervene immediately with the Libyan authorities and consolidate its efforts to end the Egyptian prisoners in Libya crisis.
