By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 20 August 2014:
The Shura Council of Islamic Youth in Derna has killed an Egyptian . . .[restrict]man it accused of murder in what is reportedly the second public execution carried out by the group in the town.
A local resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Libya Herald that the executed man, identified as Egyptian national Mohamed Ahmed, had been accused of killing a Derna inhabitant, Khalid Al-Drisi. Drisi was killed in his house in Shail Al-Sharqi on Friday.
The resident said the execution took place at a football ground in western Derna. He added that the execution began at around 5 pm, just after Asr prayers.
The execution was the second such public killing in Derna. On 27 July, Islamic Youth put to death two men, one Egyptian and another Libyan, for an alleged murder.
This most recent killing has received wide-spread attention after a video of the proceedings was uploaded to the internet. The veracity of the video has been confirmed and shows one man, apparently Ahmed, killed by a single gunshot to the head.
He is surrounded by around 40 members of the Islamic Youth most of whom carry Kalashnikov rifles and wear face masks and military fatigues of one kind or another. One member holds the black flag of Al-Qaeda at the centre of proceedings.
There are a large number of spectators present in the stands at the football ground but they cannot be seen in the video. The execution is met with the sounds of chanting and applause.
The Shura Council of Islamic Youth in Derna rose to prominence in the town in early April after the amalgamation of three radical Islamist groups in the area including the Army of the Islamic State of Libya. The establishment of Islamic Youth started a power-struggle in Islamist dominated Derna with the group emerging in control of the town’s court.
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