The Libyan National Army (LNA) and the forces in Libya’s western region carried out a prisoner exchange, releasing pilot Amer Al-Jagam, who was captured in 2019.
Al-Jagam’s son, Ziyad stated that his father had arrived in Al-Shweirif village, and then travelled onward to Benghazi as part of a deal between Al-Zawiya and Benghazi.
The Head of the National Human Rights Commission in Libya (NCHRL), Ahmed Hamza welcomed the exchange. He said the step “contributes to accelerating the achievement of national and social reconciliation.”
Hamza stressed the importance of “resorting to the rule of law and justice, ensuring commitment to achieving transitional justice, and guaranteeing the rights of victims and those affected.”
He also rejected extrajudicial arrests, arbitrary detentions, and arrest warrants issued by bodies and authorities not empowered to enforce the law. As well as calling for “disclosing places of the secret prisons and the detainees therein, and revealing the fate of those abducted, and forcibly disappeared.”
In September 2021, Libya’s 5+5 Joint Military Committee (JMC) supervised an operation to release and exchange prisoners between the LNA and the forces of the western region. This was part of the ceasefire agreement signed between the two sides in October 2021.
The operation took place in coordination with the Committee of Prisoners and Missing Persons in the Central Region, and in the presence of dignitaries and wise men from the cities of Misrata, Gharyan, and the Libyan Red Crescent. Seven prisoners of the LNA, and eight western forces prisoners were released.
In 2021, the United Nations Support Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) welcomed the release of prisoners as part of the October ceasefire agreement. It also commended the efforts being exerted by the JMC and all parties involved in contributing to confidence-building measures. The mission also called for the release of all detainees to “support national reconciliation, lasting peace, and stability in Libya.”
