Skip to main content

Libyan Commander Wanted By ICC Released After Protests

Maj. Mahmoud al-Werfalli PHOTO: Aljazeera
A Libyan commander wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over a series of summary executions was released on Thursday, a day after handing himself in to military authorities in eastern Libya, a military source said.
Supporters of the commander, Mahmoud al-Werfalli, had demonstrated in the eastern city of Benghazi late on Wednesday against any legal action being taken against him, closing roads and burning tires.
Some held signs reading “We are all Maj. Mahmoud al-Werfalli”.
Werfalli is a commander in an elite unit attached to the Libyan National Army (LNA), the dominant force in eastern Libya.
It rejects the internationally recognised government in Tripoli and is aligned with a separate government based in the east.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Werfalli in August 2017, accusing him of a role in the summary killings of 33 people between June 2016 and July 2017, as the LNA neared the completion of its campaign to take control of Benghazi.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor reiterated her call for the LNA’s top commander Khalifa Haftar to hand over Werfalli after a video purportedly showed him shooting dead 10 blindfolded prisoners at the site of a car bombing in Benghazi in February.
A military source said Werfalli had returned to Benghazi overnight “after the completion of investigative procedures concerning the case of the International Criminal Court”.
There was no official comment on his release.
By Thursday morning, the protests had subsided and roads in Benghazi had reopened.
LNA leader Haftar is a likely candidate in elections that the UN says it is hoping to hold by the end of the year in an effort to help unify Libya.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Photos, Three killed in Osun bank robbery attack

Dare devil armed robbers today attacked a new generation commercial bank in Ila-Orangun, Osun state killing three persons, including police security.                                              The suspected armed robbers, numbering about eight, were said to have stormed the bank at about 2pm and operated for one- and- a half hours after blasting the bank’s security door with an explosive substance. A substantial amount of money was carted away from the bank.  Two other victims killed by the armed robbers were said to be hit by stray bullets while a number of people sustained various degrees of injury while trying to flee the scene. Eyewitness said police officers arrived the scene almost immediately and engaged the robbers in a fierce gun battle. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Catalan Pro-Independence Group Blocks Roads To Protest Ex-Leader’s Arrest

Protesters wave Spanish and Catalan Senyera flags during a pro-unity demonstration in Barcelona on October 29, 2017. Pro-unity protesters were to gather in Catalonia’s capital Barcelona, two days after lawmakers voted to split the wealthy region from Spain, plunging the country into an unprecedented political crisis. / AFP PHOTO / PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOUPIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty Images The Committee for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), a Catalan pro-independence group, blocked several roads on Tuesday to protest the arrest of former leader, Carles Puigdemont. Traffic was halted on several motorways and highways and on the Diagonal, one of the main avenues of Barcelona. People held banners calling for “freedom’’ for “political prisoners.’’ Apart from Puigdemont, several Catalan secessionist figures are in pre-trial detention in Spain, including his ex-deputy Oriol Junqueras and a new candidate for the Catalan presidency, Jordi Turull. The CDR also called a “general st...
Post a Comment
Read more

136 new cases of Coronavirus recorded in Nigeria

  136 new cases of Coronavirus were recorded in Nigeria on Saturday September 26, as confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).    A breakdown of the new cases across states is as follows; Lagos-41, Ogun-27, Rivers-19, Abia-10, Oyo-6, Plateau-6, Bauchi-5, Ondo-5, Ekiti-4, Kaduna-4, Edo-3, Ebonyi-2, Bayelsa-1, Delta-1, Osun-1, Yobe-1.    There are now 58,198 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the country and 1,106 deaths have been recorded. 49,722 patients who recovered from the disease have also been discharged.     
Post a Comment
Read more