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Libya
The Revolutionary Courts
In the early 1980s, a separate and parallel judicial system emerged
that abrogated many procedures and rights ensured by the traditional
court system. With the regime's blessing and encouragement, revolutionary
committee members established revolutionary courts that held public,
often televised, trials of those charged with crimes against the
revolution. A law promulgated in 1981 prohibited private legal
practice and made all lawyers employees of the Secretariat of
Justice. In these courts, the accepted norms--such as due process,
the right to legal representation, and right of appeal--were frequently
violated. According to Amnesty International, Libya held seventy-seven
political prisoners in 1985, of whom about eighteen were held
without trial or remained in detention after having been acquitted.
Others allegedly died under torture while in the custody of members
of the revolutionary committees. Libya also sanctioned murder
of political opponents abroad, a policy reaffirmed on March 2,
1985, by the GPC.
Data as of 1987
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