The defense attorney for defendant Khaled El Hishari said that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is attempting to “make up for a fifteen-year failure” regarding the conflict in Libya and the post-Muammar Gaddafi era by fabricating charges against his client.

During El Hishri’s trial hearing on Tuesday, lawyer Yasser Hassan (an Egyptian national) added that the crimes attributed to his client are not related to the Libyan crisis that triggered the court’s jurisdiction in Libya, which includes armed violence and human rights violations specific to the Gaddafi regime, its opponents, and foreign forces involved in Libya.

El Hishiri’s Lawyer: The Special Deterrence Forces Have No Connection to Resolution 1970

Hassan argued that the crimes attributed to his client relate to a government entity established after the fall of the Libyan regime and have no connection to the former regime or the seizure of power—namely, the Special Deterrence Forces,—adding that the specific objectives of the Deterrence Forces are to combat terrorism, theft, and smuggling. He added that these crimes have no connection to Resolution 1970, which the Security Council adopted on February 26, 2011, and through which the Council referred the Libyan case to the International Criminal Court.

El Hishri faces charges of committing crimes against detainees at the Mitiga Prison in Tripoli between 2014 and 2020.