Human Rights Watch has called the Misrata brigade holding two British journalists working for Iran’s Press TV to hand them over . . .[restrict]to the Libyan authorities.
Reporter Nicholas Davies and cameraman Gareth Mongomery-Johnson were held late on Tuesday while in Misrata and are now being held by the brigade in Tripoli.
“Militias have no business detaining people and holding people,” HRW’s Sidney Kwiram was quoted as saying in Tripoli. The two, whom she said were being held by Misrata’s Saraya Swehli brigade, had to be handed over to the government “immediately”.
She said the brigade had refused to allow HRW access to see the journalists. It was the second time in the past year that it had been stopped by a brigade from visiting detainees.
She criticised the brigade and its leader Faraj Swehli.
“It is absolutely critical commanders like Swehli not go around freelancing with the law,”
“Until the militias begin to cooperate with the new government, it is going to be very difficult to establish the rule of law in Libya,” she was quoted as saying.
There has been no explanation why the two Britons were detained. They have been in Libya for the past six months without problems and were said to have built up working relationships with all the various brigades. [/restrict]
