Suspect

United States and Libyan authorities should clarify the legal basis for the abusive arrest and subsequent extradition to the US of a Libyan suspect in the ...

[stated](https://twitter.com/observatoryly/status/1603465059547893760?s=12&t=yuAbTRFupD3PL5npYCPzaQ) on TV that he had cooperated with US authorities in the transfer. US authorities [obtained](https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1347321/download) an English translation of the transcript of the interrogation in 2017. [Abu Anas Al-Libi](https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/08/us-ensure-rights-libyan-detainee), also known as Nazih al-Ruqhai, to the US to face prosecution for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania that killed 224 people. The group permitted Masud to call his relatives and permitted the family to visit him twice in Misrata before his transfer to the US. [documented](https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/12/02/endless-wait/long-term-arbitrary-detentions-and-torture-western-libya) the use of [torture](https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/03/libya-jail-video-alleges-gaddafi-son-abused), intimidation, and [other abuses](https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/13/libya-gaddafi-son-ex-officials-held-without-due-process) in Libyan facilities, often to extract confessions. In a statement on December 14, Libya’s [general prosecutor](https://twitter.com/observatoryly/status/1603012602652663811?s=12&t=yuAbTRFupD3PL5npYCPzaQ) confirmed that his office had not been part of the extradition and that he had opened an investigation into whether Masud was extrajudicially transferred. US authorities on December 12, 2022, [announced](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pan-am-flight-103-terrorist-suspect-custody-1988-bombing-over-lockerbie-scotland) that they had custody of and intended to prosecute Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former official of the government of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, after an armed group seized him from his home in Tripoli. [Statement of Facts](https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1347321/download) from 2020, the US Justice Department maintains that there is probable cause that Masud conspired with others, and aided and abetted them, in causing the destruction of Pan Am flight 103. A relative of Masud told Human Rights Watch that family members had no prior notification of the extradition, and learned about it from social media posts about his appearance in a US court on December 12. In November 1991, Scottish authorities and the US charged two Libyan intelligence operatives in connection with the bombing. The US had long sought Masud’s arrest for his alleged role in the Lockerbie bombing. “The political impasse and chaos in Libya don’t allow US authorities to disregard violations of fundamental rights.”