On Sunday, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Abdoulaye Bathily received the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan in Tripoli. Khan expressed his joy at meeting Bathily, and his “sincere thanks for the strong support of UNSMIL for his visit,” the ICC tweeted.
Earlier, Khan held a meeting with the head of the Libyan Presidential Council Mohamed Al-Mnifi, during which he hailed the Libyan authorities’ support in facilitating the visit. He announced that his visit comes to enhance cooperation with the Libyan authorities.
“As I noted in my last report to the United Nations Security Council, the Libya Situation is a priority for my office, and deepening our cooperation with national authorities in pursuit of accountability is one of the core principles at the heart of the renewed strategy I outlined to the Council in April of this year,” Khan said in October.
He noted that the arrest of suspects involved in smuggling people from Africa to Europe via Libya is of significant importance in the work that Italy and the Netherlands are doing to hold perpetrators accountable for crimes targeting migrants.
The ICC Prosecutor commended the authorities in both countries for their meticulous and effective investigative work. These criminal investigations also benefitted from the support provided by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Europol, and Interpol, among others.
In addition, he welcomed the recent arrests in Ethiopia and the extradition to Italy and the Netherlands of two key suspects of crimes against victims of human trafficking and human smuggling in Libya.
“In the course of the journey, the victims were reportedly subjected to brutal violence, including in camps located in Libya, and suffered beatings, starvation, sexual violence, and extortion,” Khan added.
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