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Rabat – A US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday found Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar guilty on charges of “murder and torture.” The ruling in the civil suit came after the judge ruled Haftar had not cooperated with the court, ruling that he will have to compensate the families who brought the case before the court.
While the ruling comes as part of a civil suit, not a criminal one, lawyers representing Haftar’s victims see the ruling as confirmation that Haftar can be brought to court on criminal charges as well. Currently, the court rules that Haftar must compensate the plaintiffs, who claimed Haftar had ordered the torture and murder of their family members during the bloody Libyan civil war.
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Khalifa Haftar lived in the US for two decades after receiving political asylum following the Chadian–Libyan conflict that ended in 1987. He became a US citizen during this time, making him eligible to be sued in US courts.
Victims of the Libyan civil war had used Haftar’s citizenship status as a means to bring charges based on the 1991 US Torture Victim Protection Act. The statute, known as the TVPA, “gives rights to U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike to bring claims for torture and extrajudicial killing committed in foreign countries.”
However, the Alexandria District Court’s ruling is still open to be appealed by the Libyan general, and upcoming hearings still need to set the level of compensation that Haftar would be demanded to pay.
The news comes within weeks of Haftar agreeing on a deal that would allow his political opponent, current caretaker Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, to remain in power in exchange for the appointment of Haftar-loyalist Farhat Bengdara as chairman of Libya’s vital national oil company.
Few see this quid pro quo as affecting the situation on the ground, however. As rival Libyan political forces struggle to agree on the country’s elusive first democratic elections, small-scale violence in Tripoli and Misrata this week marred an already fragile peace.
