Libyan prisons raids expose Muslims Brotherhood`s support for smuggling of “ISIS”

By: Abdul Hadi Rabee

The problem of prison incursions into the smuggling of detainees is one of the most important security problems facing the Libyan state, as a result of the security chaos that followed the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

The problem of prison incursions in Libya made a war between factions, and the almost complete control of militias and armed entities with multiple loyalties and ideologies.

Frequent incursions

The beginning of August 2011, the invasion of armed entities, to a number of prisons that until now were under the control of remnants of the Qadhafi regime, such as the prison of Abu Salim and the prisons of Tajoura and Ain Zara prison and Jadida prison, all fell into the hands of the attackers, which led to the escape of thousands of detainees, Of the Islamists belonging to the LIFG, al-Qa’idah, the MB and the Martyrs’ Brigade of Buslim.

In March 2013, 30 prisoners managed to escape from Hebron prison in Zliten, east of Tripoli, due to a light and medium weapons attack on the prison, with the intention of taking out a leader of the LIFG, but the prison guard clashed with the attackers.

In July 2013, the city of Benghazi also saw extensive protests by extremists and a conflict between the armed militias of the MB and the LIFG on the one hand, and militias affiliated with the Salafist movement on the other, which resulted in the arrest of about 1,000 detainees, serious, escape from prison.

In December 2013, the prison of the judicial police in the city of Ajdabiya was attacked by armed militias, in which 38 prisoners attempted to escape, but four were arrested and the others managed to escape.

In 2014, against the background of the Libyan national army led by Al-Mashir (currently) Khalifa Haftar dignity process to liberate the country from terrorism.

The attacks on prisons to the front again by breaking into the prison “ditch” in the suburb of Tajoura.

In December 2015 and led to the escape of 200 prisoners during the outbreak Armed clashes between extremist militias and prison guards.

In June 2016, members of extremist groups stormed the Ruwaymi prison to block the release of 17 political prisoners who had been released on political issues related to the support of the Qadhafi regime.

However, prison leaders controlled by LIFG militias prevented them from doing so and released the prisoners to follow them Armed militia cars and shoot them all, according to Sky News Arab.

In May 2017, the central support militia, Bouslim, led by the Kalki Singers, controlled the military college prison after violent clashes with LIFG-led militias and the government of rescue, killing 52 people, some of them prisoners.

The capital “Tripoli” did not subside, the “revolutionaries of Tripoli” led by Haitham Tagouri, loyal to the presidential council on the prison of the plateau, which includes the most prominent symbols and leaders of the Gaddafi regime, and transferred them to the prison in Ruwaymah in Ain Zara.

What if the prison of deterrence was broken into?

Libyan observers warn of the great danger that Libyan society may face in the event of such attacks on prisons.

Libyan stressed that the prison of “deterrence”, as an example contains more than (2500) and the concern of the anti-terrorist forces in the armed battles, which represents a major setback to the relative success achieved in the eradication of terrorism in many Libyan cities, especially in the eastern Libyan.

These attacks and other militias that move on religious, tribal and regional bases aimed at smuggling prisoners, but the seriousness of the escape from the prison of the «Ruwi» last day, and resulted in the smuggling of about 400 da’is and terrorists and imprisoned in the case of major.

These attacks threatened Libyan security on other axes The most dangerous is health.

The prison contains a private sector that isolates prisoners with serious illnesses such as AIDS, tuberculosis, smallpox and tuberculosis, which may lead to the spread of infection in the capital and the surrounding cities.

Why are militias trying to smuggle?

These repeated attacks on Libyan prisons reflect the unbridled desire of armed militias to smuggle extremist detainees.

Some militias also work in another direction, such as barter and negotiation, such as the Baqara militia, which has been involved in many terrorist attacks, most notably the attack on the prison of Maiteika Salafists, officials and journalists, which happened with the four Iraqi journalists to replace them with pro-militia prisoners.

The desire of their families and families to take out their families, especially that some of them have been sentenced to release has not been implemented so far, as a result of fear of the exposure of their parents to liquidate, and specifically after the massacre of the prison Ruweimi and the liquidation of 17 prisoners They were released from the prosecution.

Absence of the State

According to the writer specializing in the Libyan issue, Abdel-Sattar Hitta, that the fighting militias in Tripoli are using prisoners as a powerful pressure to impose itself in the security and political equations.

Abdel-Sattar Hitta stressed that the conditions of Libyan prisons in general are poor and need to review many on the various axes of security and humanitarian.

Hitta pointed out that most Libyan prisons are now not under direct state control.

This situation exacerbates the situation, the chances of repeated attacks and the collapse of health care for prisoners, concluding that Islamist prisoners are more than exploiting the chaos in the country.

He said that the prisons also include soldiers and officers of the army and security, and symbols of the former regime, and may take advantage of the opportunity if they find it suitable to escape.

Turkish and Qatari support

Dr. Ziad Akl, a researcher specializing in Libyan affairs at the Al-Ahram Center for Studies, believes that what is happening in the Libyan West in general is caused by the absence of a unified military institution.

Akl stressed that these entities are too weak to plan or dream of the rule of a state, working to gain limited gains.

Akl said in a statement to the «Reference website» that the MB is active amidst this security chaos, taking advantage of its relationship with the countries of Qatar and Turkey, which are the main source of funding and armament under the international embargo on weapons in Libya, which has been proved through a large number of reports Intelligence.

The researcher specializing in Libyan affairs, Al-Ahram Center for Studies, said that the process of smuggling prisoners is mainly due to the state of chaos, armed groups no longer control its elements, and the involvement of the MB in those operations markedly, being too weak to have an institutional speech.