- Title: LIBYA: Libyan prison chief rails at justice ministry over jail conditions
- Date: 9th February 2012
- Summary: LIBYA, GUWASIM (FEBRUARY 06, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PRISONERS DOING MORNING EXERCISE PRISON CHIEF AYAD SAGER TALKING TO COLLEAGUE (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRISON CHIEF AYAD SAGER SAYING: "We captured all these people from different nationalities, from African nationalities, we captured them in the roads, like we make checkpoints at the roads, especially at nights, they all come at night, and we catch them we bring them here. We feed them and we take care of them until their embassies or governments come here and sort something out for them. But, I want to complain about my government and all the human rights and all the organisations that are responsible for this. Nobody helps us, nobody has even come to see us, you are maybe the first one or second one (to come)." GROUP OF PRISONERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIAN PRISONER YAKUB SAYING: "No blanket, what to sleep - no mattress. And there is too much cold." GROUP OF PRISONERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIAN PRISONER YAKUB SAYING: "I don't know when the government (will) decide to leave (free) us, they free us. Everything from the government. Only we want to increase, maybe, the food system. (REPORTER ASKS WHAT YAKUB MEANS) In the morning they give us food, bread -- we eat. In the afternoon they give us rice and the night they give us rice, so maybe we want more." VARIOUS OF PRISONERS GOING INTO CELL BLOCK (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRISON CHIEF AYAD SAGER SAYING: "From our own pockets, from our own pockets. All the people who work here, all the guys who work here. All the people from (the nearby city of) Gharyan, they all help us. To capture the prisoners and to take care of them. All of them." VARIOUS OF PRISONERS IN THEIR BUNKS
- Embargoed: 24th February 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Libya, Libya
- Country: Libya
- Topics: Crime,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAENCREYKZZVKS5EIZHIEVA2Q61
- Story Text: Revolutionary fighter turned prison chief Ayad Sager says he has 400 prisoners of war and illegal immigrants at his prison but Libya's Justice Ministry have never called or visited.
"We captured all these people from different nationalities, from African nationalities, we captured them in the roads, like we make checkpoints at the roads, especially at nights, they all come at night, and we catch them we bring them here. We feed them and we take care of them until their embassies or governments come here and sort something out for them. But, I want to complain about my government and all the human rights and all the organisations that are responsible for this. Nobody helps us, nobody has even come to see us, you are maybe the first one or second one (to come)," said Sager, still dressed in desert camouflage fatigues more than three months after Libya's civil war ended.
In response to allegations by rights groups of widespread torture in prisons still run by Libya's disparate revolutionary militias, who arrest people they believe fought for Muammar Gaddafi and black sub-Saharan economic migrants trying to get to Europe, the government here has promised that it will take control of the prisons.
Sager says he would be happy for the government to come and take what he sees as a burden off his hands but he is yet to get any response from the Justice Ministry.
Among the inmates at Sager's prison, at Guwasim, near Gharyan, is Yakub from Nigeria.
"No blanket, what to sleep - no mattress. And there is too much cold."
He said the prisoners' other main request was for more to eat.
"I don't know when the government (will) decide to leave (free) us, they free us. Everything from the government. Only we want to increase, maybe, the food system. In the morning they give us food, bread -- we eat. In the afternoon they give us rice and the night they give us rice, so maybe we want more."
Sager he could not longer control the prisoners and that the European Union and the Libyan government needed to provide food, security and medicine.
His prison is a light-security detention centre which Gaddafi used to detain illegal immigrants from neighbouring Niger and Chad.
Sixty of Sager's men, all of whom fought in an anti-Gaddafi brigade last year, run the prison in shifts. They say it is their duty to a new Libya to volunteer here.
Over 90 percent of the inmates are black Africans who say they have no Libyan visa, and say they have stayed at the prison between 4 days and 5 months.
Sager, who lived much of his life in Manchester, UK, as his father was completing a PhD, says he is trying his hardest to keep the prison humane.
Guwasim prison lies 50 miles (80 km) south of Tripoli on a desert plain at the foot of a range of sandstone mountains, now capped in a thin layer of snow.
The inmates, some of them in sandals and loose shirts, are brought out to do exercise and laps of the prison grounds, but shiver violently.
Reuters was given full access to the prison and allowed to interview inmates in private. No inmates who were interview said they had seen a lawyer.
Many of the men here say they were arrested because they are black.
Revolutionary fighters say Gaddafi used sub-Saharan mercenaries to fight the pro-democracy revolt here and now black people are often treated with suspicion.
Guwasim prison is a product of weak government control and powerful militias, who toppled and killed Gaddafi but continue to take the law into their own hands, arbitrarily arresting people and running jails with no accountability.
Embarrassed by the allegations of torture and lawlessness, the Justice Ministry invited journalists to Ain Zala prison in Tripoli last week for an official handover ceremony to show the world that Libya is taking steps to assert its authority over the country's myriad militias, many of whom not only run prisons but use heavy weapons against each other over land and personal disputes.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Libya currently has about 8,500 detainees in roughly 60 facilities, most of them run by militias with informal relationships to the state. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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