Two Libyan families have presented their case against Libya’s east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter to an American court, in an unusual effort to hold him accountable for atrocities committed during the conflict.
FILE - In this Jan. 17, 2020, file, photo, Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter joins a meeting with the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias in Athens. Two families targeted in a campaign of violence more than five years ago are suing Khalifa Hifter, the military leader of east Libya in a suburban Virginia court.
“A substantial award will send a message ... that Hifter doesn't have free rein to commit atrocities while retaining U.S. citizenship,” Kevin Carroll, a Washington lawyer with the firm Wiggin and Dana who represents the plaintiffs, told the court. Al-Suyid alleges that on Oct. 15, 2014, an armed group affiliated with Hifter’s forces stormed her family’s home in Benghazi. Two of her brothers were gunned down. Fighters looted the house, set fire to it, and abducted her father and another brother. Their battered bodies were later found in a dump, bullets lodged in their heads and kneecaps.
Two days after the destruction of the al-Suyid house, Abdalla al-Krshiny watched a militia burn his home to cinders. He says he and his five brothers were driven to different prisons. Two turned up dead, shot at close range. Another brother’s leg was shot and crudely amputated. Yet another was given electric shocks while standing in water for hours, the lawsuit said, and lost his eye because of the beatings.
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