UNSMIL Demands Halt to Executions as LAAF Military Court Death Toll Passes 30 Since August 23

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement issued Wednesday, September 16, 2026 that it is "deeply concerned" by the execution of more than 30 people in eastern Libya in recent weeks, and said it had engaged political and technical authorities urging them to suspend further death sentences pending a credible review of the cases — expressing regret that executions went ahead despite its interventions. The executions, carried out by firing squad on the order of military courts overseen by the military prosecutor's office of Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF), mark the first use of capital punishment in Libya since 2010, ending a roughly 15-year de facto moratorium. The office said those executed were convicted of joining terrorist groups and of assassinating military personnel and civilians tied to Libya's 2014-2018 armed conflict, but gave no further detail on when or where executions took place. Amnesty International documented at least 30 executions since August 23 (10 people executed August 23 in Shahat's Qarnada military prison, 6 more on August 29) and says at least 50 additional men under death sentence remain at imminent risk, describing the underlying military trials as "grossly unfair, torture-tainted and secretive," with defendants alleging confessions were extracted under torture. Tripoli's GNU condemned trying civilians before military courts as undermining due process and the rule of law, and Libya's own Constitutional Court has previously ruled such trials of civilians unconstitutional; no GNS or LNA figure has publicly defended the specific rulings beyond the military prosecutor's original statement.