Libya

A special court in Tripoli issued a decision on 21 August to return Al-Umma editor Amara Al-Khitabi’s passport and remove him from a list of people banned from leaving the country.

Benghazi bureau chief for the satellite TV station Libya Al-Ahrar and a reporter for the popular online newspaper Libya Al-Mustaqbal, Khadija El-Emaime had just got out of her car when gunmen approached in their own car and fired on her at close range without hitting her.

Three gunmen opened fire on journalist Azzedine Kousad’s car, fatally wounding him with six shots, before fleeing.

Abdulsalam Al-Mesmari, founder of the February 17 coalition and a critic of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, was assassinated on 26 July 2013, among ongoing politically motivated attacks and murders in the country.

Authorities charged Ali Tekbali, who, as the Libyan National Party’s policy manager, is responsible for election campaigns; and Fathi Sager, the secretary general, under four sections of the penal code, two of which could carry the death penalty. The charges include insulting Islam and “instigating division.”

The deteriorating security situation in Libya has lead to journalists being repeatedly attacked, threatened or kidnapped by militias in recent months.

On 4 May, a group of armed men attacked Mabruka Almesmari, a female freelance photojournalist, during a peaceful protest in Benghazi against the sieges of government ministries in Tripoli and the pressure by certain groups to pass a Political Isolation Law that would purge former officials of Muammar Gaddafi’s ousted regime.

Three television journalists were briefly abducted in Libya in April 2013.

On 28 April, armed militiamen kidnapped Mahmoud Al-Farjani, correspondent for Al-Arabiya, while he was covering a militia demonstration. He was held for seven hours during which he was beaten and threatened with death.

In one of the latest cases, journalists were attacked by parliamentary security personnel on 20 April while covering a conference on “Reconciliation in Southern Libya” that the government and Libya’s legislature, the General National Congress (GNC), organized mainly for the benefit of the Tebu and Awlad Suleiman tribes.

Editor Amara al-Khatabi, who has been in prison since 19 December 2012, waged a hunger strike to protest his detention conditions and is now facing serious health issues for which he is denied medical attention.

After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has seen a flourishing of new media outlets and NGOs. But two years on, the country still faces challenges to free expression, says Ghazi Gheblawi.

Editor Amara Hassan Al-Khitabi has been released on bail after four months in detention; he is still charged with defaming and insulting the judicial system and has been banned from leaving Libya before the end of his trial.

Newspaper editor Amara Hassan Al-Khatabi is said to be the first journalist in Libya to go on trial for “insulting” authorities since the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi.

Amara Abdallah Al-Khitabi, the editor of the privately-owned newspaper Al-Umma, is charged with defaming and insulting the judiciary because the 21 November issue of his newspaper carried a list of 87 judges and prosecutors suspected of corruption.

Jomaa Osta and Nabil Shebani were among a total of eight people initially kidnapped by the group of gunmen when they overran the TV station yesterday afternoon. The others – Al-Assema journalists and journalists employed by other Libyan media – were all later released.