International Criminal Court allows 54 victims to participate in the El Hishri trial (original) (raw)

The judges of the International Criminal Court have approved the participation of 54 victims in the case against Libyan defendant Khalid Mohamed Ali El Hishri, including refugees from South Sudan who currently reside in Europe and have traveled to The Hague to attend the hearings.

The first hearing on the admissibility of charges in the case of Libyan defendant Khalid El Hishri, who is being held by the court on charges of war crimes, began yesterday before the First Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court. The hearing resumed today and will continue through Thursday.

A victim who fled South Sudan recounts his years in Libyan prisons

According to Radio France Internationale (RFI), a number of victims will participate in the hearings, including Lam Majok, who fled the war in South Sudan and was imprisoned several times in Libya. He says he spent five years in Libya, during which he lived through a true hell, “as if I were being burned by a fire from which there was no escape.”

He revealed his six unsuccessful attempts to cross the sea, until he turned to the United Nations, saying: “I feel I have to fight, because I have endured so much. I was detained, forced to cross borders from one country to another, tried to cross the sea, and was imprisoned.”

Majok spoke on behalf of the other migrants, saying: “We are fighting for our rights, and this struggle is not ours alone, but that of migrants and refugees who are victims of violence committed by Libyan criminals. We demand justice.”

Torture of nearly 5,000 civilians in prison

El Hishri, a former director of the Mitiga prison near Tripoli, is appearing before the court’s judges over three days, as the prosecutor seeks to charge him with crimes against humanity, including rape, sexual violence, torture, persecution, and enslavement, committed between 2014 and 2020.

The prosecutor has three days to convince the judges to refer El Hishri to trial.

According to an official memorandum, over the course of six years, at least 5,000 civilians were subjected to systematic torture in the prison, where physical, sexual, and psychological violence was the norm. According to the prosecution, the Mitiga Prison was a place of terror and oppression. As for the suspect, he controlled the women’s section of that prison.

The picture painted by the prosecution of El Hishri is chilling, according to a description by RFI: he is “a violent and frightening man… a notorious torturer, whose reputation granted him absolute authority over the prisoners.”