The influential Libyan General Chalifa Haftar has been sentenced in the United States to pay damages to the victims’ families for human rights violations. A federal judge ruled on Friday that Haftar had failed to cooperate with the judiciary and could therefore be ordered “in absentia” to pay the plaintiffs damages. Several Libyan families had sued the leader of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) over the deaths of family members in Libya.
Haftar “waged an indiscriminate war against the Libyan people,” the plaintiffs said. “He killed scores of men, women and children in bombing raids and tortured other civilians.” They based their lawsuit on a 1991 US law that allows civil prosecutions against people acting in an official capacity for a foreign nation committed torture or extrajudicial executions.
“The judiciary has won, Haftar will have to answer for his war crimes,” said Faisal Gill, one of the lawyers who initiated the case, in a statement obtained by the AFP news agency. Haftar can still appeal the decision and there will be further hearings to determine the amount of compensation to be paid.
The US judiciary had temporarily suspended the proceedings so as not to influence the December 2021 elections planned in Libya. In the end, the election was not held and the proceedings continued. Haftar had tried to stop the process and referred to an alleged immunity as head of state. The general controls large parts of eastern Libya with his LNA.
Since the fall and violent death of long-term ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been shaken by violence and power struggles. Two rival governments have been fighting for power since March.
Fathi Baschagha is supported as head of government by Haftar and the parliament in eastern Tobruk. Abdelhamid Dbeibah heads the interim government set up in western Tripoli in 2020 with the support of the international community.
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