Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

Saleh Hadiyah Abu Abdullah Di’iki
Saleh Hadiyah Abu Abdullah Di’iki (Di’iki) 223 is a former LIFG member who was in US custody
before being returned to Libya. He left Libya in 1990, spent time training and fighting against
the Soviet-installed Afghan government, and eventually ended up in Mauritania. In 2003
Mauritanian authorities arrested him. Both the Mauritanians as well as individuals he alleges
were Israeli and American interrogated him. The Mauritanian authorities then transferred him
to Morocco, where he believes he was again interrogated by Americans.
US authorities transferred him from Morocco to Afghanistan, where US personnel detained,
interrogated, and ill-treated him. The United States eventually transferred him to Libya,
where he was detained for years before being tried and sentenced to life in prison. He was
released when the uprising against Gaddafi began in February 2011 but then re-arrested
shortly thereafter and detained and mistreated until Gaddafi’s forces fell that August.
Human Rights Watch interviewed Di’iki over the course of two days in March 2012 in Tripoli
and then again by phone from New York in May 2012. The information in this section is drawn
from these two interviews unless otherwise noted. 224
Departure from Libya
Di’iki was born in 1973 and was 17 years old when he left Libya in 1990. He had been
studying applied engineering but had not yet finished his studies. He said he left Libya due
to abuse and harassment against devout Muslims at the time. He first went to Pakistan
and Afghanistan, where he became part of the LIFG, trained in Libyan camps, and partici-
pated in fighting against the formerly Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah.
He said that after the Najibullah government fell in 1992, infighting among the different
Afghan armed factions made it difficult for Libyans to remain, so he left the country in late
1992 for Mauritania. He said he lived in Mauritania until June 1998 and, while there,
pursued religious studies, worked with the LIFG, and got married. He travelled to Syria and
then back to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in 2000. He said that on September 11, 2001
223 Saleh Hadya Abdusalam al-Di’iki’s name has been spelled “Salah” or “Saleh De’ayki” and “Abd el-Salam el-Diki.” He has
also gone by the name “Saad” and “Abu Abdullah al Zlitni,” which has been spelled “Abu Abdallah al-Zulaytini”.
224 Human Rights Watch interview with Saleh Hadiyah Abu Abdullah Di’iki, Tripoli, Libya, March 17 and 18, 2012 and phone
interview, May 24, 2012.
67 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012