Free, Iftikhar Boudra

Prisoner of Conscience

Human Rights Solidarity expresses its deep concern about the deteriorating health situation of prisoner of conscience Ms. Iftikhar Milad Mohamed Boudra, who is detained by the Internal Security Agency in the Kweifiya[i] prison complex, located north of Benghazi city

Solidarity calls on the Government of National Unity[ii] to immediately release Ms. Iftikhar and provide urgent medical care for her health condition.

According to a video of an “urgent appeal” made by Mr. Mohamed Milad Boudra [iii], on the evening of Wednesday, July 13, 2022, a security officer visited Ms. Iftikhar’s family home in Benghazi and informed them that “Iftikhar’s health condition has seriously deteriorated” and that it is “between life and death” as he described it.

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Members of the Internal Security Agency Benghazi Branch arrested Ms. Iftikhar in the early hours of December 10, 2018, on the pretext of publishing a recorded broadcast on her personal account on the social network (Facebook) in which she criticized the security and economic[iv] conditions in the city of Benghazi.

She was tried before the military court in Benghazi in 2019 and the court sentenced her to death by firing squad. After appealing the sentence to the same court, the sentence was commuted to ten[v] years.

Ms. Iftikhar, who is still in detention, suffered first-degree burn injuries more than two years ago, according to her brother Mohammed. Human Rights Solidarity calls for an independent investigation into the circumstances of the fire incident in which Ms. Iftikhar was injured inside the Internal Security Section of Al-Kuwaifiya Prison[vi].

The Internal Security Service, which was reinstated by the House of Representatives after it was abolished by the NTC, is a repressive organ that the ICC convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes when it led the crackdown on peaceful protests from February to August 2011[vii].

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Though it has been a month since Mr. Mohamed Boudra made the Urgent Appeal , and two weeks have passed since the issuance of the joint statement of four United Nations experts on human rights[viii], in which they demanded the immediate release of Ms. Iftikhar Boudra , as of the date of preparation of this report, no official position has been issued by the Government of National Unity or any of its ministries. Ahmed Mahmoud, a human rights researcher at Solidarity, described the Libyan authorities’ failure to take any action in Ms. Iftikhar’s case as “a gross failure of the government to perform one of its most important duties, which is the duty to protect. Even more serious is the reinforcement of the impression among a wide segment that this government, which preceded it, has no interest in the promotion and protection of human rights.”

Mrs. Iftikhar is a prisoner of conscience, she did not commit a crime, all she did was express her opinion peacefully, and we do not see any position from the Minister of Justice or from the Attorney General. In return, prisoner Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, the last prime minister of the former regime, who is sentenced to death after being convicted by the court of war crimes and crimes against humanity, is released[ix]. This is not a government, nor a Ministry of Justice, nor a public prosecutor’s office, which respects the law and the rule of law and fights impunity

Solidarity calls for the immediate release of Ms. Iftikhar Milad Boudra, as her arrest is a violation of a fundamental human right, the right to express one’s opinion, a right guaranteed by the Constitutional Declaration[x], The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights[xi].

 Ms. Iftikhar did not practice violence or incite it. The Government of National Unity[xii] must also exercise its powers over armed militias and carry out its duty to protect or cease to support these militias.

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Human Rights Solidarity

Tripoli

[i] The Kweifiya prison complex is located in the village of Kuwayfiyah, north of Benghazi, with three sections; the criminal section is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and supervised by the Judicial Police; the political section is subordinate to the Ministry of Interior and supervised by the Internal Security Agency; and the military section is run by the Military Police. According to Mr. Mohamed Boudra, Ms. Iftikhar’s brother, Internal Security Agency members raided his sister’s house after midnight and arrested her, and she is now detained in the military section of al-Kuwaifiya prison
.

[ii] Although al-Kuwaifiyah prison is located in the city of Benghazi and is under the control of militias affiliated with the so-called Libyan National Army, the Government of National Unity bears responsibility for the serious violations carried out by these militias, as it nominally reports to the Ministry of Interior of the Government of National Unity and receives from it its budgets and salaries

[iii] Social Media Network (Facebook): Urgent Appeal , FB page of Mr. Mohamed Milad Boudra “Abu Owais”, July 13, 2022.

[iv] Libya Panorama Channel: “Detained in Haftar’s Prisons, Iftikhar Milad Boudra “, June 1, 2021. According to the channel’s report, “the charge against her: writing against Haftar on its page and broadcasting a video in which she accuses Haftar and his forces of committing crimes.”

[v] Libya Panorama Channel

[vi] There are allegations that the fire was the result of the victim being poured petrol on by masked people inside the prison, which is an attempted murder and severe bodily injury.

[vii] ICC: “The case of the Prosecutor v. Al-Tuhami Mohamed Khaled” , 18 April 2013. Al-Tuhami Khaled was the head of the Internal Security Agency for a seven-year term that ended in August 2011. Pre-Trial Chamber I, of the International Criminal Court, concluded that “between 15 February 2011 and 24 August 2011, members of the Internal Security Service and other members of the security forces arrested and detained persons believed to be opponents of the Gaddafi regime and subjected these persons to various forms of ill-treatment, including severe beatings, shocks, acts of sexual violence, rape, solitary confinement, deprivation of water and food, detention in inhumane conditions, sham executions, death threats and rape.

The Chamber considered that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that such acts constitute crimes against humanity … “, and the Chamber also considered that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the above-mentioned acts committed by members of the Internal Security Service and other security forces constitute war crimes … “.

[viii] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Libya: UN experts demand release of detainee , 1 August 2022. Experts Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, their causes and consequences. Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Tlaleng Mofokeng,Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and Melissa Upreti,Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

[ix] Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi has not been prosecuted for inciting the use of rape as a weapon of war. There is an audio recording of a phone call  (Link) (between Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi and al-Tayeb al-Safi, one of the leaders of the former regime, talking about the restoration of control by former regime forces over the city of Zuwara (early March 2011). The recording contains a hint from Baghdadi that he was aware of rape crimes carried out by their forces in the city.

[x] Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance: “Constitutional Declaration of 2011 – with its amendments”. Article (14): “The State shall guarantee freedom of opinion, freedom of individual and collective expression, freedom of scientific research, freedom of communication, freedom of the press, media, printing and publishing, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, demonstration and peaceful sit-in, and in a manner not inconsistent with the law.”

[xi] United Nations, Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner: “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, Article 19.

[xii] Amnesty International:  “Libya: Government of national unity must not legitimize militias and armed groups responsible for horrific abuses”, 6 August 2021. Excerpts: “Former security officers under Muammar Gaddafi in the Internal Security Service, a hated security and intelligence apparatus with unchecked powers, have resurfaced in recent years to join a group of armed groups that use the name of the Internal Security Service and operate in the strongholds of the self-proclaimed Libyan Arab Armed Forces, led by General Khalifa Haftar.