Reuters AlertNet Lite - Libya denies U.S. accusation of torture, abuse

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Libya denies U.S. accusation of torture, abuse

14 Mar 2007 16:28:53 GMT
Source: Reuters

TRIPOLI, March 14 (Reuters) - Libya's government denied on Wednesday a U.S. accusation that it practised torture, saying its judiciary was independent and human rights were protected.

"Libyan laws consider torture, human trafficking, discrimination and slavery a crime. This guarantees the right to justice for all," a foreign ministry statement said.

The U.S. State Department said in its annual report on human rights for 2006, published last week, that Libyan security personnel routinely tortured detainees.

It added that in a trial in which five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were convicted of infecting Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS, the authorities had limited the defendants' right to call witnesses.

The six, in jail since 1999, were sentenced to death in December by a Libyan court for starting an HIV epidemic in a hospital in the eastern town of Benghazi. The prosecution based its case mainly on confessions from some of the nurses who say they are innocent and were beaten and tortured to admit guilt.

The U.S. report also said the state restricted civil liberties and freedoms of speech, assembly and association.

Libya said the report was based on false information.

"The judiciary in Libya is independent," the statement carried by the official Jana news agency said.

"The fallacies in the report about human rights in Libya have no foundation and are based on inaccurate information and have not been drawn up with objectivity and sound methodology."

"Those detained have been involved in criminal acts that are forbidden by the law that governs relations between people in all countries. Libyan laws condemn any official or security man who breaks the law, they will be dealt with and given justice."

The U.S. report said that while in theory the people held power through a system of popular congresses, in practice Gaddafi and his inner circle monopolised political power.

The Libyan statement said: "Those who have drawn up the report do not understand Libya's political system which is based on direct people's democracy."

Gaddafi, shunned internationally for much of his rule amid Western accusations of terrorism, improved his standing in 2003 when Libya accepted civil responsibility for the 1988 downing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people.

Tripoli then announced it would abandon its weapons of mass destruction programmes, a decision that was praised by London and Washington and led to the formal ending of a U.S. trade embargo in September 2004.

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Last updated:Wed Mar 14 16:30:40 2007