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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 17 June 2020:
UNSMIL said yesterday that it was concerned about the arrest, detention and ill-treatment of a large number of Egyptian nationals in the city of Tarhuna in potential violation to Libya’s international human rights law obligations on the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
It said that it welcomed the statement released by the Tripoli Ministry of Interior on this issue and called on the local authorities in Tripoli to conduct a prompt investigation, to uncover their fate and whereabouts and to ensure their treatment in accordance with international standards.
The statement by UNSMIL comes on the back of reports and video footage circulating on social media of forces aligned to the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli ill-treating Egyptian workers in Tarhuna – after the withdrawal from Tarhuna by the Khalifa Hafter aligned forces.
The crime that the Egyptian workers seemed to be accused of by their tormentors in the video clips was no more than the fact that they were firstly working in a city previously under Hafter-aligned forces and that their country supports Hafter.
The Tripoli government has not denied the incident and has undertaken to investigate it.
