Libya
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Premeditated murder, treason and offenses against the...
- News items in the archive
- 226
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Libya is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 226 news items on Libya, from 1999 to today.
In Libya the death penalty applies to a wide list of offences and is administered within a fragmented institutional framework, with authorities and courts that do not recognise one another. The documented executions include both judicial sentences and killings carried out by armed groups.
The archive gathers what can be verified, and always names the source.
Latest news
- MAY 21, 2001LibyaDEATH PENALTY
A Tripoli court sentenced seven people to death for...
A Tripoli court sentenced seven people to death for their involvement in last year's bloody riots that Libyan officials said were part of a plot aimed at derailing Muammar Gaddafi's African unity drive
- APRIL 27, 2001LibyaDEATH PENALTY
Mr Ngwakosi [phonetic] and Mr Mafuta [phonetic] were...
Mr Ngwakosi [phonetic] and Mr Mafuta [phonetic] were sentenced to death by a criminal court after being convicted of assassinating the Libyan ambassador to Central African Republic
- APRIL 25, 2001LibyaDEATH PENALTY
Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights during...
Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights during the vote on the resolution on the death penalty, a representative of Libya called for a roll-call vote on L
- JANUARY 1, 2001LibyaDEATH PENALTY
Premeditated murder, treason and offenses against the...
Premeditated murder, treason and offenses against the State are capital crimes
- OCTOBER 7, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
A Libyan court postponed the trial of the six Bulgarian...
A Libyan court postponed the trial of the six Bulgarian medics to November 4, 2000
- SEPTEMBER 17, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
A Libyan court postponed until October 7 the trial...
A Libyan court postponed until October 7 the trial of the six Bulgarian after a request by Libyan and Bulgarian defence attorneys for more time to prepare and study the 1,600-page indictment
- JUNE 30, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
The Libyan government rejected allegations that the...
The Libyan government rejected allegations that the Bulgarian medics had been tortured in prison
- JUNE 4, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
The People's Court of Libya adjourned the trial of...
The People's Court of Libya adjourned the trial of the six Bulgarian medics charged with infecting intentionally Libyan children with the AIDS virus to September 17
- APRIL 6, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
A human rights committee in Britain said that the Libyan...
A human rights committee in Britain said that the Libyan security forces had executed three of the eight Islamists that Jordanian authorities extradited to Libya in January 2000
- FEBRUARY 29, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
The Libyan Justice Secretary gave his Bulgarian counterpart...
The Libyan Justice Secretary gave his Bulgarian counterpart guarantees that the Bulgarian medics would be given a fair trial
- FEBRUARY 22, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
Five Bulgarian nurses, Kristiyana Vulcheva, Nasya Stoicheva,...
Five Bulgarian nurses, Kristiyana Vulcheva, Nasya Stoicheva, Valentina Siropoulo, Valya Chervenyashka, Snezhana Dimitrova and one doctor, Zdravko Georgiev, were charged with intentionally infecting 393 Libyan children with the HIV virus in a Benghazi hosp
- JANUARY 1, 2000LibyaDEATH PENALTY
Premeditated murder, treason and offenses against the...
Premeditated murder, treason and offenses against the State are capital crimes
- NOVEMBER 1, 1999LibyaDEATH PENALTY
In November, speaking at the Third Committee of the...
In November, speaking at the Third Committee of the General Assembly (human rights) under item 116a (death penalty), the representative of the Libyan mission el-Sayeda Nagat el-Haggiog said that the question of the death penalty fell within the sphere of
- JULY 28, 1999LibyaDEATH PENALTY
On July 28, on Col
On July 28, on Col
- JULY 22, 1999LibyaDEATH PENALTY
Libya signed the letter, dated 22 July 1999, addressed...
Libya signed the letter, dated 22 July 1999, addressed to the President of the Economic and Social Council, in which the retentionist countries dissociated from the Commission on Human Rights resolution 1999/61 on the question of the death penalty
- JANUARY 1, 1999LibyaDEATH PENALTY
Premeditated murder, treason and offenses against the...
Premeditated murder, treason and offenses against the State are capital crimes