Libyan security forces killed at least 24 people in a violent crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations during a “Day of Anger” against leader Muammar Qaddafi, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday.
The New York-based rights group, citing witnesses, said 24 protesters were killed and scores injured during Thursday’s assaults on protests in two Libyan cities.
“The authorities should cease the use of lethal force unless absolutely necessary to protect lives and open an independent investigation into the lethal shootings,” HRW said in a statement.
The worst violence hit the eastern city of Al-Baida, where hospital staff put a call out on Thursday for additional medical supplies to treat 70 injured protesters, half in critical condition, the rights group said.
One injured protester sitting near the hospital’s intensive care unit told HRW that security forces had used live ammunition to deter protesters, fatally shooting 16 of them and wounding dozens others.
In Benghazi, hundreds of lawyers, activists, and other protesters gathered on the steps of the court on Thursday calling for a Constitution and respect for the rule of law.
A protester told HRW that groups of men in street clothes armed with knives, later joined by internal security forces, charged into the crowd to disperse the demonstration.
He said he believed security forces had shot dead at least 17, HRW said, adding that it was able to confirm eight of those deaths.
“The security forces’ vicious attacks on peaceful demonstrators lay bare the reality of Muammar Qaddafi’s brutality when faced with any internal dissent,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW.
“Libyans should not have to risk their lives to make a stand for their rights as human beings,” she said.
Libya’s state news agency says Qaddafi had toured the capital Tripoli, trying to rally loyalists.
More demonstrations were expected yesterday, and witnesses say protesters camped out in a central area of Benghazi.
The state news agency JANA says that Qaddafi’s convoy toured Tripoli late on Thursday to rally support. A pro-Qaddafi online paper said one of his sons had visited security forces in eastern Libya where many of the protests took place to offer financial help.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS