Libyan lawyer Hanane al-Barassi was shot dead in her car on Tuesday in the middle of the street in Benghazi, we learned from a security source in eastern Libya. This murder aroused great emotion in the country.
Media figure in Libya, Ms. Barassi, 46, was constantly giving voice to women victims of violence, in videos that she then broadcast on social networks. She also ran a local association defending women’s rights.
“Hanane al-Barassi was shot dead in Rue 20, one of the main shopping streets in Benghazi,” the security source told AFP, who requested anonymity.
“A few minutes earlier, she was broadcasting a live video on Facebook,” according to the same source.
In this sequence, the lawyer from an influential tribe in eastern Libya criticized, sitting in a car facing the camera, armed groups close to Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of the East, saying she was “threatened”.
Amnesty International denounced the assassination of one who “criticized the corruption of several individuals affiliated with armed groups in eastern Libya”.
“The day before her death, Hanane declared on social networks that she was going to publish a video exposing the corruption of the son of the leader of the LAAF (+ Libyan national army +, self-proclaimed by Haftar, editor’s note), Saddam Haftar”, according to Amnesty .
“Hanane’s assassination highlights the threat to the lives of women who speak out on political issues in Libya,” said the NGO.
The authorities in the east did not react.
This case comes almost a year and a half after the disappearance of parliamentarian Siham Sergewa, kidnapped by an armed group in Benghazi, after having criticized the offensive launched by Haftar on Tripoli. She never reappeared.
The assassination of Hanane al-Barassi arouses great emotion in the country. This is “frightening and appalling news and a painful reminder of the reality on the ground, especially for women,” another Libyan lawyer, Elham Saudi, also known for her associative commitment, blasted on Twitter.
This “recalls other crimes for which no one has been punished,” commented Hanan Salah, researcher at the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Libya sank into chaos after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, torn between the Government of National Unity (GNA) based in the West in Tripoli, recognized by the UN, and a power embodied by Khalifa Haftar .
After the failure of the Marshal’s offensive in April 2019 to seize the capital, the fighting ceased in June 2020.
A permanent ceasefire was reached in October. Libyan representatives of all stripes on Monday began direct talks in Tunisia, under the auspices of the UN, to find a political settlement to the conflict.
