The court in the city of Bayda also sentenced nine other defendants to 15 years in prison each, the office of General Prosecutor al-Sediq al-Sourr said in a statement. The defendants were part of a network smuggling migrants from Libya to Europe, it said. The court ruling was the latest in the conflict-wracked North African nation to target traffickers. Human traffickers have benefited from the instability in Libya, smuggling migrants across borders from six nations, including Egypt, Algeria and Sudan. For years, the United Nations and rights groups have decried the inhumane conditions faced by migrants trafficked and smuggled across the Mediterranean.
