The announcement of the Prosecutor of the International Crime Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, about the war crimes of the against the field commander of the Special Forces, Mahmud Al-Werfalli, affiliated with the Dignity Operation under the leadership of General Khalifa Haftar caused different reactions.
Bensouda stressed that the Libyan authorities are responsible for arresting Al-Werfalli and handing him to the ICC. She called the International Community to help Libya in arresting Al-Werfalli.
The reaction of Haftar’s forces that had come in a statement by the spokesperson of the Dignity Operation, Ahmed Al-Mesmary, tried to prove that Al-Werfalli is innocent despite the major evidence that goes up to the level of publishing videos showing him carrying out his crimes against prisoners.
Al-Mesmary’s statement wouldn’t affect the ICC decision and the announcement of the deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, Eric Goldstein, who said that “the posted videos suggest that LNA-linked forces committed a series of grave war crimes over many months.”
Goldstein added that “the ICC warrant for Al-Werfalli is a wake-up call to other abusive commanders in Libya that one day their serious crimes could land them in a prison cell in The Hague.”
In the same context, Haftar and his forces hadn’t suspended Al-Werfalli or stop him from working. Moreover, Al-Werfalli announced, earlier, that he was ready to resign, but his leadership didn’t accept his resignation.
To that, Al-Mesmary announced the latest statement to play another game trying to use the time to protect Al-Werfalli from being captured and handed to the ICC.
Al-Mesmary said, in the statement, that Al-Werfalli was stopped from working on 2/August/2017 while, on the other hand, he was promoted to the rank of Major after that date.
Al-Mesmary’s statement said that Al-Werfalli is under arrest and investigation before the military prosecutor.
On the other hand, a group of Haftar’s forces gathered in Benghazi demonstrating against the ICC decision.
Furthermore, one of the relatives of Al-Werfalli admitted that they kill in the streets in front of the public; adding that they don’t care about the ICC or International Community. He stressed that they carried out more executions than the ones that published on videos.
The statement of Haftar’s forces raised the following questions:
Had Haftar suspended Al-Werfalli?
Why did Haftar’s forces announce that Al-Werfalli is under arrest after the ICC decision?
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