Twenty-three people have been sentenced to death, and another 14 have been sentenced to life in prison by a Libyan Court on Monday for their participation in a brutal Islamic State militant campaign that included beheading a group of Egyptian Christians and taking control of Sirte in 2015.
According to a statement from the Attorney General’s office, five people were found not guilty, three others passed away before their cases went to trial, and one other person received a sentence of 12 years in jail, six to 10 years, one to five years, and six to three years.
One of the Islamic State’s most powerful affiliates outside of its home area in Iraq and Syria was in Libya, where it capitalized on the mayhem and fighting that followed a 2011 NATO-backed revolt.
The group attacked the opulent Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli in 2015, killing nine people. Subsequently, it kidnapped and beheaded other Egyptian Christians, whose murders were depicted in gory propaganda videos.
The organization took control of eastern Libya’s Benghazi, Derna, and Ajdabiya before seizing the key coastal city of Sirte and keeping it until late 2016 as it imposed a strict code of public morals supported by harsh penalties.
Mustafa Salem Trabulsi, the leader of an organization for the families of those killed or abducted by the gang, expressed his disappointment in the verdict but said he accepted it.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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