Tripoli, 15 April 2013:
A Deputy Public Prosecutor in Tripoli is reported to have said that those caught drinking or using drugs . . .[restrict]should be lashed and that smugglers of alcohol and narcotics should be executed.
A source told the Libya Herald that the lawyer, described as “the deputy head of the crime and felonies department” claimed that these were the punishments under Islamic law and they should be carried out.
The man supposedly went on to say: “We will no longer jail people who are caught drinking alcohol and abusing drugs. We will not spend money on them in prison, will not feed them ….. they will be lashed”. However, he had apparently prefaced these remarks by stressing: “These penalties will only be applied against the perpetrators after exhausting all available means to prove their innocence”. The lawyer’s views are thought to be personal rather than official.
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