Libyan war crimes suspect arrested in Germany under ICC warrant
The ICC has issued 11 arrest warrants in connection with alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Libya since the ousting and killing of the country's long-time leader, Muammar Gaddafi, which plunged Libya into civil war.The situation was referred to the court by the United Nations Security Council in February 2011, at the start of the protests which led to Gaddafi's ousting later that year, with the help of Nato forces.In its referral, the Security Council condemned the "violence and use of force against civilians... the gross and systematic violation of human rights, including the repression of peaceful demonstrators".It also expressed "deep concern at the deaths of civilians", while "rejecting unequivocally the incitement to hostility and violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan government", then under Gaddafi.Since the overthrow of Gaddafi, after six decades in power, Libya has been split into areas controlled by various militias and is currently divided between two rival governments.
On 12 May 2025, Libya accepted the ICC's jurisdiction over its territory from 2011 to the end of 2027.Eight other public ICC arrest warrants are still pending in connection with the violence that followed the fall of Gaddafi.Earlier this year, Italy controversially released Osama Najim - also known as Almasri - who was allegedly the director of the Mitiga detention centre.Amnesty International says Mitiga Prison was the scene of "horrific violations committed with total impunity".Some of those kept in Mitiga are migrants trying to reach Europe.Mr Najim was freed due to a legal technicality, according to sources in Italy's interior ministry.The ICC said Mr Najim had been released by Italy "without prior notice or consultation with the Court" and issued another arrest warrant for him. He remains a fugitive.Mr Hishri will remain in detention in Germany until arrangements are made for him to be surrendered to the ICC's custody and extradited to face justice in The Hague.His case will join others in the court's ongoing efforts to address crimes committed during Libya's conflict, though other suspects remain at large.
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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
I'll send depraved monsters like Ian Huntley to hellhole jails in El Salvador if Reform is elected, reveals Nigel Farage
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The plan would make use of so-called dynamic prisons — which focus on adapting traditional options to become more flexible in their location and management. According to Ministry of Justice data, the average annual cost of housing a prisoner in England and Wales was £51,724 as of April 2024. Last month, the prison population rose to a staggering 87,334 — just 2,239 short of full capacity. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood faced criticism earlier this month over recommendations that could allow thugs, thieves, and drug-dealers to avoid crown court. Offenders may dodge a criminal record and instead be sentenced to do unpaid work or get rehabilitation, it is proposed. Sentences could also be slashed by 40 per cent — up from a third now — for early guilty pleas. Moment deported Tren de Aragua gang inmates scream and rattle cells at US officials in notorious El Salvador mega-prison That's in addition to thousands of early prisoner releases both last year and this to try to stop a meltdown in the prison system. Reform MP Sarah Pochin, a former magistrate, told The Sun yesterday: 'The cost to the British taxpayer of prison places is currently estimated at over £50,000 per year and rising. 'By sending our most serious offenders to overseas jails, we greatly reduce this cost and at the same time they experience a tougher prison environment and lose privileges such as family visits which quite frankly they don't deserve.' Supporters say the move would curb the ability of sick monsters — including Soham double child-killer Huntley — to torment the families of their victims from behind bars. Last week, The Sun revealed Huntley had sparked outrage by donning a Manchester United-style No10 shirt — a chilling and offensive reference to ones worn by ten-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman on the day he murdered them in 2002. Now 51, Huntley is serving a life sentence at HMP Frankland, Co Durham, where a source said: 'He's been seen strutting about in the shirt as if it's funny. It is vile.' We told yesterday how jail bosses had now confiscated the shirt. Sending lags abroad to complete their time behind bars is catching on in Scandinavia. Denmark has signed a ten-year deal with Kosovo to lease 300 cells in a refurbished prison near the city of Gjilan. The agreement is worth around £13million per year, with an extra £4.3million in one-off refurbishment costs, totalling approximately £173million over the decade. The initiative is aimed at easing overcrowding in Danish jails, which have operated at capacity for years. Under the plan, only foreign nationals set to be deported post-sentence will be relocated to Kosovo. For too long, Labour and the Tories have sent the message that crime in Britain carries little to no consequence. Reform will change that Nigel Farage But Reform insists that its blueprint will include Britain's most dangerous criminals. Deport offenders The party has already vowed to deport all international offenders. Denmark says its programme is both economical and effective, helping to address staff shortages and easing the strain on local prisons. Supporters say it also sends a firm message to foreign offenders: commit a crime here, and you won't be in for an easy ride. Elsewhere in Europe, Belgium is eyeing a similar deal with Kosovo, while the Netherlands plans to send up to 500 foreign inmates to Estonia from next year. Sweden is studying the legal feasibility of exporting both Swedish and foreign prisoners, and Austria has also expressed interest in following Denmark's lead. And in March, President Donald Trump deported more than 200 Venezuelans held in the US to a mega-prison in El Salvador. But Labour has blasted Mr Farage's overseas prison places plan as 'pie in the sky'. A Government source told The Sun: 'This is more fantasy thinking from Farage, who has once again dreamed up a policy that just doesn't add up. 'While he peddles pie in the sky schemes, this Government is building prisons right here in Britain with 2,400 new cells opened as part of the biggest jail expansion in over a century.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Farage: Reform will end early release of serious criminals
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A survey carried out by J L Partners found that Reform UK has a six-point lead over Labour. The two parties are on 29 per cent and 23 per cent, leaving the Conservatives trailing at 17 per cent. If replicated in a general election in 2029, this would be enough to give Mr Farage's party a slim majority in Parliament. On Sunday night, Reform would not reveal how they were going to fund their pledges, but promised to lay out the details on Monday morning. Under the new policy, Reform would end all early release schemes for sex offenders, serious violent offenders and those carrying knives. Mr Farage will vow that under a Reform government, all shoplifters will face arrest, and all drug traffickers will be sent to jail for life. Kicking off a 'six-week offensive' of policy announcements in his speech, he will claim his tough stance on law and order will see crime fall by half. 'If you're a criminal, we are putting you on notice,' he will say. 'In 2029, you have a choice to make: be a law-abiding citizen or face serious justice.' These will include places freed up by sending foreign offenders back to their country of origin to serve the rest of their sentences. 'By deporting 10,400 foreign prisoners, Reform will end the crisis of prison overcrowding,' Mr Farage said. 'There's no justification for taxpayers funding the lives of criminals who shouldn't be here in the first place.' Mr Farage will also promise to appoint 30,000 more police officers within five years, helped by the fast-track recruitment of military veterans. And he will vow to scrap all diversity, equality and inclusion roles and bring in regulations to stop two-tier policing. It comes after the row over the case of Lucy Connelly, who was jailed for 31 months last year for inciting racial hatred after publishing a racist social media post. A party source said: 'Under Labour and the Tories, criminals run the streets, under Reform we will take back control of our streets and return to law-abiding people.' The new policies on early release contrast sharply with those recommended in the landmark Independent Sentencing Review two months ago. It suggested that violent prisoners, including those convicted of sex offences and domestic abuse, could be released after serving just a third of their sentence in a bid to relieve prison overcrowding. It also recommended that more offenders should be managed in the community instead of serving custodial sentences. The review was launched after hundreds of prisoners had to be released early because jails were overcrowded. Sir Keir Starmer has since been accused of attempting to row his party further to the right in a bid to meet the threat of Reform UK. But his attempts, including warning that Britain risked turning into an 'island of strangers', have so far borne little fruit. Mr Farage will launch a new policy under the title 'commit the crime, pay the price'. It states that all found guilty of serious violent offences, sexual offences and of being in possession of a knife will not be able to apply for early release. There will also be no suspended sentences. The party will ensure that all shoplifters face arrest; a change from the current situation where people face no action for stealing goods of low value. There would also be mandatory life imprisonment for drug trafficking, and life will mean life for these offences. Reform UK will also pledge an extra 30,000 new prison spaces. Of these, 10,400 spaces will come from the transfer of foreign prisoners to their country of origin. Bilateral agreements will be made so foreign offenders can finish their sentences in their own country, in a practice accepted by the European Union and the United Nations. Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said: 'If Nigel Farage was serious about making our streets safer, he should have backed the tough new laws we introduced earlier this year. 'It's shameful that Reform constantly seeks to undermine confidence in our police and criminal justice system and voted to try to block measures to crack down on knife crime, anti-social behaviour, shop theft, child sexual abuse, and long overdue action to tackle the scourge of violence against women and girls. 'They should focus more on practical solutions to support our police, combat crime, deliver justice for victims of crime, rather than chasing headlines, spouting slogans and trying to divide communities.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Syria: Bedouins tell BBC they could return to fighting Druze
Bedouin fighters positioned outside the southern Syrian city of Suweida have told the BBC they will observe a ceasefire with the Druze community there, but have not ruled out resuming hostilities. The Bedouin fighters have retreated from the city to surrounding villages in the province after a week of deadly sectarian clashes between Druze fighters, Bedouins and government forces, with Israel carrying out air strikes in support of the Sunday a UK-based monitoring group said there was a "cautious calm" in the region - but later said tribal fighters had attacked the town of al-Mazara'a - a Druze town until last week when it was taken over by the Bedouin and now under Syrian government control - smoke could be seen across the fields rising from Suweida a nearby checkpoint a mound of dirt cut across the road. Dozens of government security personnel were standing along it, all heavily armed and blocking the Bedouin from re-entering the of Bedouin fighters, many firing guns into the air, crowded the want the release of injured Bedouin people still in the city of Suweida, who they refer to as hostages. Otherwise, they say, they will force their way past the checkpoint and head back into the city."We did what the government have ordered us and we are committed to the agreement, and the government words and we came back, Suweida is 35km far from here," a tribal elder told the BBC."Currently our hostages and wounded are there, they are refusing to give us anyone... If they don't commit to the agreement we are going to enter again, even if Suweida will become our cemetery." Long-running tensions between Druze and Bedouin tribes erupted into deadly sectarian clashes a week ago, after the abduction of a Druze merchant on the road to the capital President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government responded by deploying forces to the city. Druze residents of Suweida told the BBC they had witnessed "barbaric acts" as gunmen - government forces and foreign fighters - attacked people. Israel targeted these forces, saying they were acting to protect the forces withdrew and Druze and Bedouin fighters subsequently clashed. Both Druze and Bedouin fighters have been accused of atrocities over the past seven days, as well as members of the security forces and individuals affiliated with the interim Saturday, al-Sharaa announced a ceasefire and sent security forces to Suweida to end the Druze fighters are once again in control of the city. But more than 1,120 people have been killed, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) dead included 427 Druze fighters and 298 Druze civilians, 194 of whom were "summarily executed by defence and interior ministry personnel", the monitor 354 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin were also killed, three of them civilians who it said were "summarily executed by Druze fighters". Another 15 government troops were killed in Israeli strikes, it said. At least 128,000 people have been displaced by the violence, the UN migration agency said on Sunday. Suweida city has a severe medical supply shortage, the SOHR said.A first humanitarian convoy from the Syrian Red Crescent has reportedly reached the city. Israel's public broadcaster reported that Israel had sent medical aid to the Secretary of State Marco Rubio meanwhile has demanded that the government "hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks" to preserve the possibility of a united and peaceful Mia'rbah, south-west of Suweida, Bedouin refugees gathered at what used to be a school. The village still bore the scars from years of civil war, with buildings lying in ruins and strewn with bullet holes. At the aid distribution centres elderly Bedouin women collected water from a tank on the back of the truck. Most of the people there were women and children. Asked whether she thought Bedouin and Druze could live together, one woman displaced from Suweida city said it would depend on the government in Damascus. "They can live together if the government will take over and rule, and if the government will provide peace and security," she the absence of government authority, she said she believed that Bedouin could not trust the Druze."They are traitors, without peace and security we can't live with them," she reporting by Jack Burgess
