Kabir Humayun: A Libyan criminal court has sentenced 45 militiamen to death by firing squad for killing demonstrators in Tripoli in 2011.
The justice ministry says they are accused of opening fire on dozens as rebel forces closed in on the capital during the uprising against former leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, reports BBC.
Aside from the 45 sentenced to death, 54 more were given five-year jail terms and another 22 were acquitted of charges
relating to demonstrator deaths.
The death sentences announced on Wednesday are the first known to be handed down by a Tripoli court since 2015, the BBC’s North African correspondent Rana Jawad reports.Libya has struggled to restore peace since the uprising seven years ago.Back then, dozens of high-profile Gaddafi-era regime officials, including his son Saif al-Islam, were sentenced to death by firing squad.
Those verdicts have not been carried out and historically most death sentence prisoners in Libya have ended up sending life in prison instead.The country has splintered and since 2014 has been divided into competing political and military factions based in Tripoli and the east.