Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

North Africa, and Asia in response to governments they deemed corrupt, oppressive, and
not sufficiently Islamic.
Libya was no exception. In 1977, several years after Gaddafi took power, he imposed his
unique political system, the Jamahiriya, or “state of the masses,” on the country. The
government confiscated property, and began regulating every aspect of life, from religion
to economics to education, in entirely new and often incomprehensible ways. Many
Libyans, including traditional Muslims who were particularly outraged by the changes
Gaddafi made to the practice of Islam and considered them blasphemous, expressed their
opposition. Gaddafi put down dissent brutally, focusing in particular on Islamist opposition
groups who, due to their alignment with Islamist groups abroad and the deep
devotion of many members, he treated as a dangerous threat. Those suspected of even the
slightest connection with the movement were rounded up, imprisoned, and sometimes
executed, including in public and broadcast on television. It is in the context of this
crackdown that the LIFG began to organize and set out, from bases both within and outside
Libya, to overthrow Gaddafi.
Virtually all the former Libyan detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they
fled the country in the late 1980s because of Gaddafi’s repressive policies against organized
Islamic opposition groups and against persons perceived to be associated with such
groups, due to their religious practices. Some joined the LIFG while in Libya and others
once outside the country. All but one said they participated in the fighting in Afghanistan
that eventually defeated the Soviet-installed government of Mohammed Najibullah in 1992
and used the training they gained there for LIFG-led anti-Gaddafi efforts.
After the September 11 attacks on the United States, being Libyan without documentation
in Afghanistan, and being part of an armed Islamic opposition group, placed these Libyan
expatriates at high risk of arrest. That was true even if—as all those interviewed for this
report claim—their group was not at war with the West. And so many of them fled, along
with their families, moving from country to country, including to destinations such as
Malaysia and Hong Kong as well as Mali and Mauritania. It was in these countries that they
were taken into custody before being sent elsewhere.
For many of the individuals profiled here, this will be the first time their stories are told
because until last year they were locked up in Libyan prisons.
3 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012