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ICC issues second warrant of arrest for Libya’s Werfalli

July 6, 2018 at 9:01 am

Senior military commander of the eastern Libyan army, Mahmoud Al-Werfalli [Lyobserver/Twitter]

The International Criminal Court has issued another warrant of arrest for Libyan war crime suspect Mahmoud Werfalli, a major in the Libyan National Army commanded by General Khalifa Haftar.

The Hague-based court said in a press release that “Werfalli directly committed murder as a war crime in the context of an eighth incident which took place on 24 January 2018, when Mr. Al-Werfalli allegedly shot dead ten persons in front of the Bi’at Al-Radwan Mosque in Benghazi, Libya.”

This is not the first time that the court has issued a warrant of arrest for Werfalli. A previous warrant was issued in August 2017 over accusations that he had committed war crimes by murdering 33 persons in seven different incidents throughout 2016 and 2017, in Benghazi and surrounding areas.

In videos that have been previously circulated on social media, the Libyan military general was seen executing ten handcuffed persons in Benghazi. The videos sparked outrage and prompted the United Nations Support Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) to demand that the Haftar-affiliated army hand Werfalli to the ICC.

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