‘Mercenary War’: New report on Turkey’s crimes of aggression against Libya

Egypt’s Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue issued on January 2 a report titled “Mercenary War” regarding Turkey’s crimes of aggression against Libya, urging international criminal action taken against Ankara. The report presents a human rights approach to the crimes of aggression committed by Turkey, which still continue against Libya, and how they represent crimes against humanity, requiring the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute the Turkish regime for those crimes.

The report observed a number of crimes that took place, including brutal killings, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial assassinations, and exporting Turkish-backed armed militias as mercenaries to Libya, the majority of whom belong to the terrorist Brotherhood organization in Libya.

Saeed Abdel Hafez, head of the Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue, said that the report monitored the Turkish export of arms to Libya’s illegitimate Tripoli-based government, which violates UN Security Council Resolution 1970 of March 2011 that demands all UN member states prevent the sale or supply of weapons to Libya, in addition to Resolution 2420, which allows member states to inspect ships heading to or coming from Libya in order to counter the entry of weapons into the country. But Ankara disregarded the resolutions from day one and supplied the militant elements in western Libya with weapons.

Abdel Hafez pointed out that the report monitored the transport of mercenaries via flights that had increased in recent days through airlines owned by Libyan Brotherhood leader Abdel Hakim Belhaj and operating in Turkish territory. The Turkish SADAT security services company was also involved in training and recruiting mercenaries from youth religious movements and then sending them to fight against the Libyan National Army (LNA).

The report called for international criminal action taken against Ankara in accordance with the recent amendments to the Rome Statute, so as to classify what Turkey is doing as a crime of aggression and to start procedures to prosecute the Turkish regime for crimes against humanity in Libya.