Libyan military commander wanted over killings

TRIPOLI, Jan. 26 — The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Wednesday demanded the extradition of Mahmoud al-Werfalli, a senior military commander whom the UN body accused of carrying out illegal executions in the eastern city of Benghazi.

“UNSMIL is alarmed by reports of brutal and outrageous summary executions in Benghazi today. The UN demands the handing over of Mahmoud al-Werfalli immediately to (the International Criminal Court) as it documented at least 5 similar cases, in 2017 alone, carried out or ordered by al-Werfalli,” the UNSMIL tweeted.

“Those responsible for committing or ordering summary executions are criminally liable under international law,” it added. The UN demand came a few hours after images surfaced online showing al-Werfalli carrying out field executions of 10 people at the site of a terrorist attack in Benghazi on Tuesday.

Al-Werfalli is a general in the special forces attached to Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) that controls Benghazi. The international community has several times demanded legal prosecutions against Haftar as his forces kept gaining ground on the battlefield. In August 2017, the International Criminal Court in The Hage issued an arrest warrant for al-Werfalli and demanded his extradition over suspicion of committing war crimes in eastern Libya. Immediately after the warrant was issued, the LNA announced that al-Werfalli was under arrest and being investigated, although his whereabouts were unknown. – XINHUA