Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

Mostafa al-Mehdi (see above) saw al-Libi two weeks before he died. During Human Rights
Watch’s 2009 visit, the Libyan authorities had gathered all the prisoners that we had
requested to see together at the clinic inside the prison. Mehdi said Abu Salim prison
authorities had fixed the clinic up: “They cleaned it up and put doctors inside and an
ambulance out front.” The authorities suggested to the prisoners during this meeting that
they all tell Human Rights Watch that they did not want to cooperate with us. 430 Mehdi said
during this meeting, al-Libi “did not seem himself” and “had completely changed.… He
was in very bad condition—both mentally and physically.… It was so obviously clear.… He
couldn’t talk clearly and was so thin. You could recognize he was not well because, I knew
this guy. His character was so friendly—he used to welcome everybody and make them
laugh. We had known each other for years, since our time in Peshawar together, but he
acted like we never met or knew each other.” 431
At the time of al-Libi’s death, human rights groups called on the Gaddafi government to
open a full investigation. 432 Since the fall of Gaddafi, al-Libi’s brother and uncle have
renewed this request with the new government. 433 Al-Libi’s family showed Human Rights
Watch pictures taken of al-Libi date-stamped the morning of his death. They said they got
the pictures from the prosecutor’s office conducting the inquiry. 434 The photos depict al-Libi
in the position in which guards allegedly found him in his cell on the morning of his death.
In the first picture, al-Libi’s back is up against a gray brick wall that separated his cell in
two sections. The wall was about seven and a half feet high and about six inches thick. His
back is up against the six inch edge of the wall. A sheet with ends tied together is looped
around the top part of the thin section of the wall and his head rests in the loop created.
His feet are firmly on the ground and his legs slightly bent at the knee.
430 Human Rights Watch Interview with Mehdi, Tripoli, Libya, March 14, 2012.
431 Human Rights Watch Interview with Mehdi, March 14, 2012.
432 “Libya/US: Investigate Death of Former CIA Prisoner,” Human Rights Watch news release, May 11, 2009; See also
“Document—Libya: Amnesty International Completes First Fact Finding Visit in Over Five years,” Amnesty International public
statement, May 29, 2009, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE19/003/2009/en/d226b133-691d-41dc-aabfca89038618e7/mde190032009eng.html
(accessed August 29, 2012).
433 Human Rights Watch interviews with Faraj el-Fakhri, March 21, 2012; Abdul Aziz el-Fakhri, March 22, 2012; and other
prisoners who were detained with al-Libi while in Libya and Afghanistan.
434 Human Rights Watch interviews with Faraj el-Fakhri, March 21, 2012; and Abdul Aziz el-Fakhri, March 22, 2012.
DELIVERED INTO ENEMY HANDS 130