A lawsuit accusing the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Fayez Al-Sarraj, former Libyan prime minister of committing 20 war crimes on the Libyan territory, over the past years, has been submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague by the Libyan Organization for Terrorism and Extremism Victims.
It is noteworthy that the Government for National Accord (GNA) handed over the rule this week to the new executive government headed by Abdel Hamid Al-Dabiba. This comes a few days after it won the confidence of the Libyan parliament and was sworn in in front of the MPs.
According to media sources, the case includes a number of Libyan figures and officials, as well as leaders of armed militias’ leaders who fought alongside forces supporting the GNA, during confrontations with the Libyan army. The organization considered what happened during the years of conflict as a Turkish aggression on Libyan territory.
At the end of 2019, the Turkish president announced dispatching Turkish military forces to the Libyan capital Tripoli, in support of the GNA forces and affiliated militias. After that he admitted that he had recruited thousands of foreign militants, specifically Syrians, to fight in Libya.
In the same context, the Libyan organization the Libyan organization filed a series of charges in the lawsuit, including aggression, genocide crime by inflicting bodily or psychological harm, genocide crime by imposing harsh living conditions intentionally to cause physical destruction.
In addition to the above mentioned crimes, the organization listed murder, which is considered a crime against humanity, the war crime of destroying and seizing property, the war crime of attacking civilians, attacking humanitarian aid and peacekeeping mission workers, attacking unarmed places, plundering, and theft of unarmed citizens. It also added the crime of direct and public incitement to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, spreading hatred and helping or encouraging the planning, or preparation for crimes, in addition to training, financing and recruiting mercenaries.
