Benghazi, 17 August:
The residence of Qaddafi’s former Benghazi mayor, Huda Ben Amer, has been demolished. During the Revolution the building had . . .[restrict]been set alight and was left ruined and covered in anti-Qaddafi graffiti, but now a demolition team has removed all traces of the building.
One of the most feared women in the country, Ben Amer was a key member of the Revolutionary Committees, holding a number of posts including the Secretary of the General People’s Congress of Inspection People’s Control and the role of Mayor of Benghazi twice.
She rose to these positions of power from humble origins after an extraordinary act of aggression in 1984. At the public hanging of a young Qaddafi opponent, Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy, Ben Amer stepped forward and pulled on his legs until he was dead.
Her declaration that “we don’t need talking, we need more hangings,” was followed by 27 years of cruelty as a member of Qaddafi’s regime. She earnt herself the monikers ‘Huda the executioner’ and ‘Huda the vampire’.
She famously thought as little of Benghazi as Qaddafi himself, and in a speech said: “There are no men here. I am the only man in Benghazi”.
During the Revolution Ben Amer was one of the 38 most-wanted Qaddafi officials. Following her arrest last September, she has been detained, awaiting trial. [/restrict]
