The UN High Commission for Human Rights said today through its Official Spokesperson that it was ‘‘concerned by the deepening crackdown on civil society in Libya, where arbitrary arrests and a campaign of social media vilification are having a seriously chilling effect on human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, and other civil society actors. Seven men, aged between 19 and 29, were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Internal Security Agency (ISA), in Tripoli between November 2021 and March this year. The ISA has since posted videos of the seven men on Facebook, in which these seemingly confess to being “atheist, areligious, secular and feminist”, and to using social media to propagate atheism and contempt for religion. The Facebook videos have sparked a wave of hate speeches against human rights defenders. In fact, a list of activists has been circulating on social media with calls to prosecute those on it as apostates under Sharia law and sentence them to death (if found guilty).

Source: Libya Today March 25, 2022 20:41 UTC