The Public Prosecution ordered the detention of civil activists affiliated with the Tanweer movement and referred their files to the accusation chamber in preparation for their trial for crimes it said were related to “calling to abandon religion and attempting to demolish one of the basic systems of society.”
The accusation evidence that the Public Prosecution relied on in imprisoning and convicting the activists was based on the reports referred by the Internal Security Agency, which faces human rights accusations of violating human rights, and the posts and tweets of those concerned on social media, which were classified under the threat of committing an act of atheism within society, insulting religion and questioning Islamic Sharia.
The Public Prosecution was not satisfied with investigating the activists, but established in its reports what it called “the declaration of repentance of the accused for the act of apostasy,” or what is known to the fundamentalist organizations as “repentance,” as the Libyan Penal Code, according to the amendment approved by the General National Congress, punishes with the death penalty anyone who is proven to have committed an act of apostasy unless they announced their repentance.
The Public Prosecutor’s move raises fears of identifying with the reports referred by the Internal Security Agency, which is facing a sharp wave of local and international criticism that reached its climax with Amnesty International accusing the agency and its head, Lotfi Al-Hariri, of committing violations and crimes of torture.
Those accusations were echoed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which called on the government to immediately and effectively carry out investigations into the abuses of the agency, which focuses its operations on prosecuting activists and actors in civil society and on social media, and broadcasting confessions of its victims through its official website before referring them to the Public Prosecution.
