Libyan activist prepares to sue Haftar in USA

Several Libyan political groups are preparing to take legal action against the Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, according to Africa Intelligence.

Haftar is being prosecuted for war crimes and human rights abuses by US courts, where the controversial Libyan general has family ties.

A Libyan law firm close to Islamic groups in Tripoli is currently preparing a lawsuit for Haftar’s upcoming visit to the United States where he will be to attend the wedding of his son Uqba Haftar.

Haftar’s son has just turned 37-years-old. He is working in the real estate sector and living in Virginia, just like his brother, Al-Muntasir Haftar and his sister, Asma Haftar. Khalifah Haftar himself lived for a long time in exile in the United States after he led a rebellion from Chad in the 1980s to depose Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan president.

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This lawsuit is the most important measure in a series of legal actions taken by Libyan activist Imad Eddin Montasser against Khalifa Haftar and his sons Saddam Haftar, a commander in his father’s army, Khaled Hafer and Al-Sadiq Haftar. Montasser, who lives in the US, is suing him on the basis of the neutrality law that prohibits the recruitment of US citizens in foreign armies, for some of Haftar’s sons have American citizenship. He also accused Haftar and his sons of human rights abuses and the use of torture.

Montasser is considered the second man in the Libyan-American Council for Public Policy and the Secretary General of the Centre for American-Libyan Strategic Studies. He has previously obtained a warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the arrest of Mahmoud Al-Urfali, Haftar’s assistant who is suspected for carrying out a number of extrajudicial executions in eastern Libya.