By Umar Khan.
Tripoli, 18 June 2013:
The prison in Tripoli’s Mitiga airbase under the control of Supreme Security Committee (SSC) Tripoli is . . .[restrict]be handed over to the military police as a military prison. The decision was made after a visit by the head of the military police, Mokhtar Fernana, to the base where he met with Hashim Bishr, head of SSC Tripoli, and Haithem Tajouri, commander of the first special reinforcement unit.
The SSC officials and Fernana’s delegation outlined the steps to hand over the prison and agreed to start the process immediately. The delegation of Mokhtar Fernana included the heads of the military prison department and of Tripoli military prison. Visiting the prison, they are reported to have expressed satisfaction as to its condition.
Hashim Bishr today confirmed to the Libya Herald the agreement to hand over the prison to the military police. “Colonel Mokhtar Fernana visited the prison under the first special reinforcement unit and we agreed on the handover. We are hopeful that it will be completed by 23 June.”
The prison will be handed over to the military police as most of the prisoners are members of the army. According to Bishr, 80 percent of the inmates are army personnel. However, the civilians would be transferred to civil jails in coordination with the Attorney General, once the handover is completed.
“Eighty percent of the prisoners belong to military whilst the remaining 20 percent are civilians but have committed crimes like murder, robbery and the like,” Bishr said.
The SSC had been formally requested by the Ministry of Interior to guard and operate the prison. The SSC has long been accused of torturing prisoners there. The Minister of Justice, Salah Marghani, also accused the SSC of resisting the handover to his ministry, something it denies.
Umar Khan can be found at twitter.com/umarnkhan [/restrict]
