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VII. Executions of Detained Convoy Survivors at
the Mahari Hotel
Following the end of the battle that led to the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi, the
militias captured an estimated 140 Gaddafi loyalists alive around the scene of the battle.
Human Rights Watch researchers observed a group of about 70 of these captives loaded
on the back of a large military truck outside the Sirte field hospital operated by the militias
on the western outskirts of Sirte, shortly before these captives were moved to Misrata
around mid-day on October 20. Some higher-value detainees, such as Mansour Dhao and
the two sons of Abu Bakr Younis who also surrendered at the scene of the battle, were
transported separately to Misrata immediately after their capture.
Not all of those detained at the scene of the battle were transferred to Misrata. On the
morning following the final battle, the bodies of at least 66 apparent execution victims
were found at the nearby Mahari Hotel, located just a few hundred meters north of the site
where militiamen had captured Muammar Gaddafi. 50The evidence at the scene, together
with the video evidence showing some of the men alive in custody at the scene of their
capture (see below), indicates that the victims were brought to the hotel after being
captured and then executed, on the same day as the capture of Muammar Gaddafi. 51
Human Rights Watch researchers visited the Mahari Hotel on October 23, 2011, and found
the decomposing bodies of 53 apparent execution victims, all male, still at the scene
(roughly twelve of the victims who had been identified by family members or friends had
been removed prior to Human Rights Watch’s visit, according to the volunteer workers on
the scene). 52 The bodies were clustered together, apparently where they had been killed,
on the grass of the sea-view garden of the Mahari Hotel. The grass beneath and around
50 Human Rights Watch interview with Sirte volunteer worker at the Mahari Hotel, Sirte, October 23, 2011.
51 The stage of decomposition of the bodies at the Mahari was similar to that of those found at the scene of the final battle
with Gaddafi’s convoy, and journalists first observed the bodies at the Mahari Hotel on October 21, the day after the battle
with the Gaddafi convoy. Human Rights Watch initially estimated that the victims were killed between October 14 and 19
(“Libya: Apparent Execution of 53 Gaddafi Supporters: Bodies Found at Sirte Hotel Used By Anti-Gaddafi Fighters,” Human
Rights Watch news release, October 24, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/24/libya-apparent-execution-53-gaddafisupporters),
but a comparison of the similar state of decomposition of the bodies at the Mahari Hotel and at the scene of the
fighting with the Gaddafi convoy, as well as the evidence collected by Human Rights Watch since then, suggests the victims
at the Mahari Hotel were killed on October 20, the day they were detained.
52 Human Rights Watch interview with Sirte volunteer worker at Mahari Hotel, October 23, 2011.
DEATH OF A DICTATOR 34