A Libyan court has sentenced 23 people to death and 14 others to life imprisonment for their participation in a fatal ISIL (ISIS) campaign that included killing a group of Egyptians and capturing the city of Sirte in 2015, Al Jazeera reported.
One other person was sentenced to a 12-year prison, six were sentenced to 10 years, one received a five-year term, and six others received three-year sentences, according to a statement released by the attorney general’s office on Monday. The statement added that three persons passed away before trial and three others were acquitted. One of ISIL’s alleged bases outside of Iraq and Syria was Libya, and the organisation profited from the ensuing instability and fighting in the North African nation after a NATO-backed rebellion in 2011, according to Al Jazeera.
The armed organisation attacked the opulent Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli in 2015, leaving nine people dead. Subsequently, the group kidnapped and beheaded scores of Egyptian Christians, whose killings were depicted in gory propaganda videos, Al Jazeera reported.
The organisation took control of eastern Libya’s Benghazi, Derna, and Ajdabiya before seizing the key coastal city of Sirte and keeping it until late 2016 as it imposed a strict code of public morals supported by harsh penalties, Al Jazeera reported further.
According to attorney Lotfi Mohaychem, the court condemned three youngsters to ten years in prison each.
Mohaychem said, “As lawyers for the victims’ families, we see the verdict of the court as very satisfying and very just.”
“The court sentenced those guilt was demonstrated and acquitted those against whom there was insufficient evidence,” he added.
ISIL and other organisations took advantage of the anarchy that overtook Libya, following the 2011 uprising that ousted and ultimately murdered longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.
In the end, soldiers supporting the former Government of National Accord, which was backed by the United Nations, drove the group out of Sirte in December 2016. Two years later, Khalifa Haftar’s forces in the east reclaimed Derna.
In Libyan jails, there are still hundreds of purported ex-ISIL combatants detained, many of whom are still awaiting trial, Al Jazeera reported.