Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

Departure from Libya
Sharif was born in 1965 in Tripoli and left Libya in April 1988 when he was 23 because “the
situation was getting worse,” he said. “Our religious people were subjected to abuse. We
had no ability to express ourselves, no choices. Even attending the mosque was a crime.”
He had been studying pharmacology at college in Tripoli. He and some others started a
secret group to try and overthrow the government, but one of his friends was executed.
After that, he and others in the group decided to leave Libya, out of fear, but also to
organize and train. Sharif left Libya for Saudi Arabia, then Pakistan and Afghanistan. He
became very active in the LIFG, eventually becoming the deputy head of the organization.
In 1995 he moved to Sudan, where he said the LIFG started to take some action against the
Libyan government. He said he was forced to leave Sudan in 1996 and went to Turkey, then
back to Pakistan, where he lived until 2002. After the September 11 attacks, he and his
family went to Iran, but in Iran he was detained and forced to return to Pakistan. He arrived
back in Pakistan in early 2003. 115
Shoroeiya is from Misrata in eastern Libya. He was born on March 22, 1969 and left Libya
in 1991. He was in the middle of his studies in science but left, he said, because of threats
against committed Muslims, especially those who were students. He first went to Algeria
and then to join other members of the LIFG in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 1995 he moved
to Sudan, where the LIFG was based and planning actions against the Gaddafi government.
The actions drew new recruits, he said, but the Sudanese government would not allow the
LIFG to train the recruits, so they moved back to Afghanistan. He left Afghanistan for Turkey
in 1999 and married an Algerian woman, Fawziya, while there. They returned to Afghanistan
in 2000 and were in Kabul during the September 11 attacks, though they quickly
moved to Karachi, Pakistan. He said that for him this was a very frightening time and that
the LIFG did not agree with bin Laden’s actions. He told Human Rights Watch, “[f]or us
there were huge differences between us [al Qaeda and the LIFG], but we knew that they
were going to see us all as one group together. At that time, the US lost its ability to
distinguish between people.” He began to feel that Karachi was not safe, so he moved to
Peshawar. He wanted to try and get to Iran as other LIFG members had done, but his wife
was pregnant so his ability to travel was limited. 116
115 Human Rights Watch interview with Sharif, Tripoli, Libya, March 14, 2012.
116 Human Rights Watch interview with Shoroeiya, March 18, 2012.
33 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012