Journalist Amara Al-Khattabi and his wife were shocked when the man serving the court summons appeared at their doorstep on November 17, 2014 to deliver a verdict issued in absentia sentencing al-Khattabi to five years imprisonment. This newest arrest of 68-year-old Libyan and prisoner of conscience sheds light on the dangers and constraints currently faced by Libyan journalists.

Journalist Amara Al-Khattabi and his wife were shocked when the man serving the court summons appeared at their doorstep on November 17, 2014 to deliver a verdict issued in absentia sentencing al-Khattabi to five years imprisonment. This newest arrest of 68-year-old Libyan and prisoner of conscience sheds light on the dangers and constraints currently faced by Libyan journalists.

“The verdict is a painful blow to freedom of the press,” said Nizar Ibrahim, director of Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press. “It is a very disturbing indication of the judiciary’s authoritarianism in restricting media freedoms.”

How al-Khattabi’s nightmare began

The initial court verdict was issued in December 2012 after an article al-Khattabi had published in al-Umma Newspaper a month earlier , where he worked as editor-in-chief. In his article, al-Khattabi demanded “the cleaning up of the judiciary, reforming the judicial system, and the expulsion of corrupt persons and their partners.” In the same article al-Khattabi published the names of 84 allegedly corrupt judges.

Al-Khattabi was charged pursuant to Article 195 of the Penal Code relating to “insulting the constitutional or popular authorities,” a charge punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment— it is a law enacted by the Gaddafi regime.

Al-Khattabi was held for five months in a pre-trial detention period which ended in April 2013 after posting US $300 bail, following a Libyan and international civil and human rights campaign. Al-Khattabi was barred from travelling during this period and his passport was confiscated by authorities.

Verdict complete with threats

Al-Khattabi’s wife, in a recent interview with Correspondents, spoke about other important details in her attempt to explain what she claims was a plot against her husband, who is in poor health and suffering from cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.

“The court held its session in mid-August 2014 when the courts were almost not functioning in Tripoli following the deterioration of the security situation,” said al-Khattabi’s wife. “Ramadan Salem, my husband’s lawyer, was by mere coincidence present at the court’s complex when the verdict was issued, but he was not informed about the session,” she added. “He was only notified of the verdict on November 17, 2014.”

Salam will submit a petition for a retrial. 

“The verdict was written in a language containing threats,” al-Khattabi’s wife said. “In the verdict, the period specified for implementation was not more than three days as of the day of receiving it, ‘otherwise, necessary procedures’ shall be taken,” she said.

Khattabi’s family rejects the court’s verdict and considers it a conspiracy. Nevertheless, according to his wife “al-Khattabi yielded to the court’s verdict, because the family respects the law and believes that the nation is above any other consideration.” 

The right to a fair trial

Al-Khattabi’s family and legal representation demand that the Libyan judiciary acts in accordance with the provisions of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Libya is a state party. The article stipulates that the state should uphold internationally recognized fair trial standards and safeguard and maintain the independence of the judiciary.

Nasser al-Hawari, Chairman of Dahaya (Victims) Organization for Human Rights, told Correspondents: “The state should withdraw the charge and repeal laws that criminalize defamation and allow courts to bar people from practicing journalism,” he said, criticizing Article 195 of the Penal Code, which was inherited from the era of Gaddafi, among other laws, “to imprison any person who commits any act that counters the ‘Great al-Fateh revolution.’”

On February 5, 2014, the General National Congress passed Law No. 5/2014, which amends Article 195 mentioned above. The law provides that “Without prejudice to any severer penalty provided for in any other law, any person who commits any act which harms the February 17 revolution shall be punished by imprisonment.” It also stipulates that “any person who publicly insults one of the legislative, executive or judicial authorities or any of their members while performing their duty or because of performing it or anyone who insults the state emblem or its flag shall also be punished by the same penalty.”

This amendment, according to human rights activists, including Hawari, is a means to suppress freedom of opinion and expression instead of providing protection and guarantees to independent writers according to the interim constitutional declaration text which guaranteed freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of the press and media, publishing and distribution, as long as these freedoms do not “violate public order.”

Lawyer Abdul Hamid Ibrahim, a member of the Libyan Lawyers Bloc, told Correspondents: “Article 195 of the Penal Code and its latest amendments, as well as the demonstration law passed by the General National Congress, reflect our realities and our authoritarian mentality which should be changed. We hope that the new constitution will explicitly stress freedoms and those related texts are formulated in line with international covenants.” 

Violence against journalists

Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press director Ibrahim said the center has documented 13 cases of murdered journalists, seven of which occurred this year, as well as 79 additional cases of kidnapping, torture and enforced disappearance, as well as 31 violations against media organizations.

“The escalation of violence against journalists is significantly linked to the political and military crisis,” said Ibrahim, “not to mention the rampant impunity, which encourages the perpetrators of the attacks and abuses to continue to commit their crimes under the silence of the security and judicial apparatuses and their inability to protect journalists and investigate crimes targeting them.”

The center pledged to provide all means of support and legal advocacy for al-Khattabi and emphasized the need to appeal the verdict and to internationalize the case before human rights organizations and international bodies.

Ibrahim also called upon the prosecutor’s office “to open serious judicial investigations in all cases of violations that led to the killing of journalists and to develop a strict mechanism to track the perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

He fully blamed the legislative authorities and held them responsible because they “failed in issuing laws that guarantee press freedom and protect journalists against imprisonment verdicts which might be issued against them in light of the absence of a legislative framework for freedom of the press and expression in the country.”