A military court in eastern Libya has sentenced a local photojournalist to 15 years in prison on vague terrorism-related charges.
The verdict sent a chilling message, local advocates said, underscoring the perils that journalists must navigate in east Libya, where military commander Khalifa Hifter has moved to quash all dissent — and more broadly in a war-torn country overrun with fractious militias.
Ajdabiya, like most of Libya’s east and south, is controlled by Hifter, a former general backed by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates who has vowed to rid the country of Islamist militias. Hifter’s 14-month campaign to capture Libya’s capital, Tripoli, in the west, from the rival Turkish-backed government collapsed earlier this year.
Legal amendments passed in 2017 broadly empower east Libyan military courts to prosecute anyone suspected of supporting terrorism. A report last year by the Tripoli-based Libyan Central for Press Freedom documented dozens of attacks on reporters by Hifter’s forces who it said “prohibit all journalists who are not loyal to it, and thus totally curtail all aspects of a civilian state.” More than 80 journalists have fled the country since 2014.
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